Travelling through Indian Railways likely to get costly - Here’s why

Passengers who enjoy long distance train travel might have to expand budgets as Railways is planning to levy a station development fee (SDF), starting from Rs 10 to Rs 50, depending on the class of travel.

As per official statements, the fee might be added to the train tickets during booking and will be levied once such stations become operational.

According to a circular issued by the Railway Board, no station development fee will be charged for suburban train journeys. The fee will be divided in three categories – Rs 50 for all AC classes, Rs 25 for all sleeper classes and Rs 10 for the unreserved class. Besides this, passengers will also have to pay Rs 10 additionally as the cost of platform tickets will be hiked.  

The circular states, “Class-wise SDF for developed/redeveloped stations shall be charged as under: For alighting passengers at such stations, the SDF shall be 50 per cent of the rates indicated above. If both boarding/alighting such stations, in that case, SDF shall be 1.5 times of the applicable rate”.

It was further announced that the SDF will remain uniform across all such stations and will be charged as a separate component plus applicable GST. This fee will help to create a continuous revenue stream for the Railways.

Many stations are being redeveloped on Indian Railways to offer modern amenities. Western Central Railway’s Rani Kamalpati station and Western Railway’s Gandhinagar Capital station are now developed.