Mumbai: Fares of AC locals won't be reduced anymore, says Railway Board Chairman VK Tripathi

Indian Railway Board's Chairman V K Tripathi, who was in Mumbai on Sunday, said the fares of AC locals won't be reduced anymore, as further reduction would be akin to freebies. He added that such a move will lead the railways to collapse like the Sri Lankan economy. Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve on Friday announced slashing of single-journey ticket fares for air-conditioned local trains in Mumbai by 50 per cent.

Tripathi, while addressing a press conference on Sunday, was asked if there was any plan to reduce prices of season ticket fares, too. "Mumbaikars usually have the paying capacity. I would like to mention that we will have to change our outlook as a society. We will have to remove from our minds to want every service for free. Look at what happened to Sri Lanka. Every service has a fee and it needs to be recycled so that the money can be put back into the system. We cannot have things for free," he replied.

Mumbai: Fares of AC locals won't be reduced anymore, says Railway Board Chairman VK Tripathi

Though he is on a two-day visit to Mumbai to review the functioning of Central Railway and Western Railway, he did not elaborate on what he suggested for improvements. He only said "all was well" and "everyone was working hard to deliver results".

Passengers wait to board an AC local train at CSMT on April 6. Pic/Ashish Raje

Asked about several stranded projects in the city, Tripathi said there were multiple reasons for delays, but mostly "land acquisition was the key issue". On the stalemate with the Maharashtra government, which has reportedly stopped funding of railway projects, including for the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation that is handling several critical projects, Tripathi said, "The railways has been following up continuously with the Maharashtra government and some funding has restarted."

The Railways's top boss, however, said he did not have any meeting with state government officials. It may be recalled that Maharashtra government's non-co-operation with the railways has seriously affected timelines of all projects, including the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

On the series of accidents that happened on CR, Tripathi said investigations are underway at an appropriate level. When asked about the anti-collision device Kavach, which could have prevented accidents like the one at Matunga recently, he said it would take about three years for complete commissioning.

Speaking on the high-speed Vande Bharat trains, Tripathi said there would be 30-35 such trains in this financial year--by March 2023--and Mumbai, too, would get such trains. At the conference for media persons, senior railway officials took the front seats, surrounding Tripathi, while journalists were relegated to seats away from him.

What caused SL crisis?

Critics say the roots of the crisis, the worst in several decades, lie in economic mismanagement by successive governments that created and sustained a twin deficit - a budget shortfall alongside a current account deficit.

But the current crisis was accelerated by deep tax cuts promised by the Sri Lankan President during a 2019 election campaign that were enacted months before the COVID-19 pandemic, which wiped out parts of its economy.

With inputs from Agencies