Pay railway ticket surcharge for seven more years

Times of India: Navi Mumbai: Sunday, September 29, 2013.

Railway commuters from Navi Mumbai have been paying surcharge for every return ticket for last 18 years. The Central Railway (CR) has already recovered hundreds of crores from commuters, but it has not discontinued collecting surcharge yet.

In reply to a query raised under the Right to Information (RTI) by Aam Aadmi Convenor and activist Ravi Srivastava, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has clarified that it has received a total surcharge of Rs 352.87crore from central railway upto January 2013, which is collected from sale of tickets for the suburban rail route. The surcharge collected in 2012-13 is Rs46.21crore.

Srivastava had filed an RTI query with Cidco on March 18, 2013 demanding to know by when the total amount will be recovered, amount pending, rate of interest and the agreement copy. He did not receive any information, he filed an appeal and even complained to state information commissioner (SIC) on August 26, 2013 stating this was wilful contempt of SIC orders. "CIDCO took six months to provide me papers," he said.

Cidco and CR had constructed the Vashi creek bridge in 1995 for Rs44 crore. In order to recover the cost of construction, CR decided to impose a surcharge of Rs2 per ticket till the amount is paid back with interest to Cidco. The contract for construction of the bridge was given to M/S AFCONS. Later, surcharge was enhanced to Rs3 per ticket, by adding Re1 for MUTP. This surcharge was rationalized to Rs 5 on January 22.

Cidco later raised funds for providing suburban rail network to Navi Mumbai by floating bonds of Rs250 crore. After interest and incremental cost of Rs537.42 crore is added, total cost came to Rs787.42 crore. The balance is Rs434.55 crore.

AAP has protested in the past against the surcharge of Rs5 charged by CR. "Who authorised CIDCO to fix the surcharge rate?" he asked.

"As a result, second class railway ticket from Vashi to CST is now Rs15 when the fare of the same distance on other routes is only Rs 10. Navi Mumbaikars end up paying Rs10 extra on a return ticket to CST every day," he said.

The surcharge is subzidized for first class passengers and monthly pass holders also, albeit less. It is noteworthy that suburban sector of CR Railway is one of the most profit-generating ventures, he pointed.

Srivastava had even written to Minister of Railways Pawan Kumar Bansal in the last week of January 2013 and also to Railway Board chairman to discontinue collecting this surcharge but to no avail.

After rationalization, CR can easily recover surcharge upto Rs60 crore per year. At this rate, it will take CR seven more years to recover the remaining amount. "Cidco and CR must not charge commuters more than what they are already paying," he demanded. Cidco spokesperson Mohan Ninawe said the corporation had floated bonds for project construction and the surcharge was simply directed towards expenses like dividend payments.CIDCO spokesperson Mohan Ninawe and transportation department head Sunil Darade remained unavailable for comment.