The increased railway fares have come into effect from today. Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced the hike in rail fares on the 9 th of this month. The fare hike is expected to mop up an additional 6,600 crore rupees per year for the government. This is the first increase in rail fares in a decade's time. The proposals will rake in an additional 1200 crore rupees between January 21 and March 31 this year.

As a result of the proposed hike, ordinary Second Class suburban fares for a distance of 35 km has gone up by 2 rupees from 8 to 10 rupees, while in the non-suburban trains it is up by 5 rupees for an average distance of 135 km. In Sleeper Class, the increase would mean a hike of 50 rupees for a distance of 770 km from 270 rupees to 320 rupees. In the case of AC Chair Car, for a distance of 387 km, the increase would be 40 rupees from 345 rupees to 385 rupees. In the case of AC Three Tier, for a distance of 717 km, the fare will go up from 724 rupees to 800 rupees, an increase of 76 rupees. Similarly, in the case of AC Two Tier, the increase would mean a hike of 48 rupees for a distance of 721 km, while for AC First Class it will be 56 rupees for a distance of 547 km.
Developmental charges on passenger tickets will be not applicable. All chargeable fares would be in multiples of five rupees. The fare hike also covered services like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto type trains. However, it exempted platform tickets from any hike.