Railways announced today hike of non-suburban train fares with immediate effect from January 1, 2020 by at least 1 paise per km of journey.
The increased fare however will not be applicable for tickets booked before January 1, 2020.
In an order issued on Tuesday the department said a two paise per km hike will be levied on mail/express non-AC trains while for the AC classes the increase will be four paise per km.
The railways said increasing the fare marginally became imperative to expand passenger amenities and also the facilities at stations and on trains as well.
The ticket fare for Delhi-Kolkata Rajdhani express is to become costlier by Rs 58. It covers a distance of 1,447 km and the hiked rate will be 4 paise per km.
The last time when such fare hike was announced was in 2014-15 and the increase was by 14.2 percent. The freight charges too were increased by 6.5 percent.
Chairman of Railway Board, Vinod Kumar Yadav, lately said in the period of next five years the trains running on Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai routes will get confirmed tickets always. There will be no waitlisted tickets as the department is working.
He also added that the department is working on three additional dedicated freight corridors (DFCs) in the period of next ten years with an estimated cost of around Rs 2.6 lakh crore. This will free up existing tracks and so more passenger trains could be run on it.
