Govt rethink on suburban railway fare, hike may be in phases

NEW DELHI: Faced with all-round protests, the Modi government is considering recalibrating suburban railway fares in Mumbai and elsewhere in order to stagger the burden of last week's massive hike over phases instead of heaping all of it on the commuter in one go. On a day when Shiv Sena slammed the unprecedented fare increase in Mumbai, top government sources indicated that they planned to work out whether a reduction of subsidy on suburban fares — the reason for the crippling jump — could be spread over a period of time. Sources said discussions on moderating the increase may begin after railway minister D Sadanand Gowda's return to the Capital on Tuesday. While Friday's announcement upping long-distance fares by 14.2% didn't cause much of a flutter, what shocked Mumbaikars, embarrassed the BJP leaders in poll-bound Maharashtra, and had the Sena, an ally, up in arms, was the 100%-to-200% hike in fares on the suburban network. 'Locals' are the lifeline of Mumbai, and transport about 7.5 million - about half its population - every day. A top government official close to the development said, "The subsidy burden has become unsustainable. However, we want to explore whether the pain of withdrawal of subsidy can be eased by implementing it in phases." While government officials baulked at calling the respite a 'rollback', a phase-wise reduction of subsidy is expected to slash a big chunk of the hike which is scheduled to come into effect on Wednesday. TOI