Elections over, is it time for Mumbaikars to brace for a fare hike as far as their monthly season passes are concerned? The first hints are coming in with Central Railway (CR) officials believing that the rollback of the fare hike on suburban passes was coming in the way of financing some mega projects to upgrade CR's network.
CR needs Rs1,000 cr for suburban network
An official told dna that CR would require almost Rs2,000 crore to upgrade its system, out of which almost Rs1,000 crore will be required in the Mumbai suburban system itself.
Projects were cleared on October 21
These projects were cleared in the works programme meeting chaired by CR general manager SK Sood on October 21 and sent to the railway board for final approval (on October 22, dna carried a report on CR sending a Rs400-crore proposal to the railway ministry). Officials told this paper that internal calculations show that CR's plan to retrofit its suburban trains with automatic doors will require an estimated Rs600 crore.
However, a recent circular of the railway board to all the railway zones in the country — to manage its losses by either cutting down expenditure or by increasing its freight earnings — has become a hurdle.
CR's loss on season passes is Rs727 crore
"CR makes losses of Rs727 crore on the suburban system because of the low monthly season pass fares. If we reduce expenditure on CR as a whole to offset suburban losses, safety of long-distance and goods trains will take a hit. So, something will have to be done to ensure money for completing these important projects," said an official.
The thing to do, officials believe, is to charge 'right price' or in short increase monthly season pass fares. The CR's official statement, hinting as much, reads: "These cost intensive proposals need that suburban losses are offset by right pricing of suburban MST fares failing which the cuts on expenditure of Central Railway may jeopardize the maintenance and safe operations of the entire long distance and goods trains as well."
Projects CR wants to complete
Rs71-crore plan to make all long-distance platforms of CST terminus capable of running 24-coach trains. This would mean that passengers would get more seats on trains that will leave CST.
Rs125 crore has been requisitioned to electrify the Jasal-JNPT Port line and the Panvel-Pen-Thal line which will allow CR to run its freight trains on a completely electrified section, resulting in savings in diesel bills and also speed up the freight transportation.
Rs130 crore has been proposed to overhaul safety works like rehabilitation of bridges, signal and telecommunication equipment and other amenities.
Rs10 crore has been sought from the railway board for the installation of digital equipment between Thane and Kalyan to ensure running of trains even during heavy monsoonal flooding.
Rs52 crore to build road-overbridges to replace level crossing gates at several places between CST and Roha.
Rs15 crore to replace foot-overbridges at Asangaon, Diva, Mumbra, Bhandup, Masjid, Sewri and Dadar stations.
Rs600 crore estimated to add automatic sliding doors to suburban trains to reduce the number of casualties from people falling off over-crowded trains.
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