‘Commuters want fare structure rationalised’

mumbai: it’s that time of theyear again.with the annual railway budget to be presented on tuesday,mumbai’s 60 lakh commuters are anxious. what will railway minister nitishkumar’s presentation in the lok sabha mean for them? with recent talk of a‘tough budget’ and fare hikes and surcharges doing the rounds,commuters’ associations are anticipating the worst and are chalking outstrategies for a struggle ahead. times news network spoke to dipak gandhi,chairperson of the mumbai suburban railway passengers’ association, on thehopes and aspirations of the city’s commuters from the railway budget.excerpts: the railway ministry has given indications that the budget will be atough one and that suburban commuters may have to shoulder the additionalburden. how willing are suburban commuters to do this? suburban commuters arenot averse to a fare increase if it is fair.what we protest is the arbitrary wayin which these hikes are imposed.take the safety surcharge that was introducedrecently. a first class suburban passenger has to pay rs 35 even for travellingbetween just two stations. for example, previously the first class fare betweensanta cruz and vile parle was rs 15. but a passenger has to pay a safetysurcharge of rs 20. how can the surcharge be higher than the fare itself?incidentally, a monthly season ticket holder also pays a surcharge of only rs20. then again, just consider the fare slabs on our suburban sector. dependingon which stretch of the suburban railway they are travelling on, one commutermay be paying 30 paise per km while another 40 paise per km. these fare slabsare in fact, contradictory to the directives of the rail pricing rationalisationstructure which the railway board is supposed to adhere to. our greatestexpectation from this budget is that fares will be rationalised. there is talkof an additional surcharge on the suburban sector for meeting the needs of themetropilitan urban transport project ii. what is your reaction to this? this isridiculous. all these years, mumbai’s suburban system has been raking inprofits, which have been used for improving services for the rest of the nation.now, when the milch cow of the railways requires upgrading, instead of gettingthe rest of the country to chip in, you expect suburban passengers to bear theload. and what do we get for doling out the extra amount? travel conditions arenot likely to improve overnight. each compartment packs in three times itsauthorised capacity. the world bank has said slumdwellers along the tracksshould be rehabilitated or else it will not fund the mutp project. part of therehabilitation is being done with money from commuters’ pockets. this isplain absurd. coming to the quality of services provided, what changes are youhoping for? for starters, the least we expect is to be provided the service forwhich we are being charged.we don’t feel any more safe now than we didbefore the surcharge was imposed. we’d appreciate an increase in thenumber of services on the suburban sector. although our rakes have theefficiency of working up to 22 hours a day, on an average, they run for onlyeight to 11 hours daily. the railways suspend several services during what theyassume to be non- peak hours. this concept was fine in the 1960s, but today,there is enough passenger load to justify running these services throughout theday. what do you think about the railway’s ongoing expansion projects? wefeel they move at a very slow pace, which only adds to the cost. take, forexample, the quadruplication of tracks between borivli and virar. it is takingages. we also feel that the railways should give up its dog-in-themangerattitude when it comes to laying new lines. if for any reason, financial orotherwise, the railways finds it difficult to lay new lines, it should privatisethe project.