Get ready to pay for rail safety

Train travel may soon get costly if the government accepts the recommendations of a high-level safety review committee on railways.

The committee headed by former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar on Friday recommended raising Rs 5,000 crore annually through cess on fares to supplement the corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore required in the next five years for upgrading safety systems of the railways.

The railway ministry headed by Dinesh Trivedi has so far not commented on the report and maintains that the safety section of the railways will now be examining the report. While taking a dig at the government for not providing a bailout for the railways, Trivedi said his ministry needs to mobilise funds. “The government bailed out Air India, which is used by select people, while the railways is used by the mass,” said Trivedi.

The review committee has also suggested setting up of a railway safety authority — an independent body with a government official as chairman and experts from outside. The panel has also pitched for an advanced signal system that will require Rs 20,000 crore.