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"This year's Railway Budget will have public interest in mind and neither passenger fares nor freight rates will be increased," Minister of State for Railways T R Baalu said.
The Railways had made a profit of Rs 20,000 crore since the UPA came to power at the Centre and the target increased to Rs 21,000 crore this year, he said after inaugurating the broadguage Bankura Damodar River (BDR) Railway at Rainagar, 30 km from here.
The 96-km railway line of the South Eastern Railway (SER) has been built at a cost of Rs 282 crore and will connect Rainagar to Bankura.
Baalu said the BDR Railway line would be extended to Masagram to provide direct connectivity to the people of Bankura to Howrah through Eastern Railway.
Another connectivity would be provided from Bowaichandi to Khana junction to provide a direct connectivity between Bankura and Khana and help people travelling to Asansol, Durgapur and Burdwan, he said.
The BDR Railway came into being on March 30, 1914 and construction of narrow gauge line started on May 1. By 1916 the work on the narrow gauge line was completed at a cost of Rs 35 lakh.
Railways made lot of profit by charging excessive fares from passangers and frieght(tatkal etc).While airline fares have dwindled to one third in some sectors compared to the Indian Airlines Era,though the petroleum prices have sky rocketed to 100$,railway fares has not shown any reduction like the air line fares.This can be changed only by competion like in airline industry and get rid of the state monopoly like indian airlines and air india, to benifit common man who uses the highly priced rail tickets,diplorable unhygenic and primitive rail coaches transporting people like sardines, in metros like mumbai calcutta. Can anybody up there in far of delhi do something about it to make the life of common mans sufferings less.
I think the state minister for railways is Mr.Velu, i ask the editor to change the error
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