Railways have announced an across the board hike in passenger fares with effect from midnight of 21st of this month. Making the announcement in New Delhi, Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Second Class ordinary suburban fares has been raised by 2 paise per kilometer and Second Class ordinary non suburban services by 3 paise per Kilometer.

Second class Mail or Express train fares have been increased by 4 paise per kilometer and Sleeper class by 6 paise per Km. Mr. Bansal said the hike in AC Chair Car and AC three Tier, will go up by 10 paise per kilometer. Three paise per kilometer additional increase has been made in First Class, six paise in AC-2 Tier and 10 paise additional hike in AC First Class apart from the existing hike of 10 paise, 15 paise and 30 paise per kilometer in these classes.

Mr. Bansal said that additional 6,600 crore revenue will be generated per year . He said the fare hike, announced after a decade , had become imperative to reduce losses. The minister assured that there will be no fresh passenger fare hike in the forthcoming rail budget.

Mr Bansal also said discussions on the proposal for setting up a Rail Tariff Authority are in progress and once finalized, will be sent to the Cabinet for approval.