Government keen to set up rail tariff authority: Bansal

With the finances of Indian Railways (IR) in dire straits, the government is keen to set up a rail tariff authority that would hopefully depoliticise fare hikes in the future.

Railway minister Pawan Bansal told reporters in Delhi that IR was facing a major financial crisis. ''Railways is not in ICU,'' said Bansal. ''But I agree that the financial condition is not good which has to be improved.There is a need to do something about fare hikes. But there are many reasons for not being able to do it.''

Former Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi, whose political boss Mamata Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief, got him sacked arbitrarily after he went in for a marginal hike in passenger fares in the budget earlier this year, had said that the transporter was headed for the ICU, and he had pulled it out with his fare hike.

Mamata not only got Trivedi sacked from the railway minister's post, she also got her loyal aide, Mukul Roy, appointed as the minister. Roy promptly rolled back the fare hike. But after the Trinamool Congress pulled out from the UPA government following the government's decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, the Congress has finally got control over the railway ministry.

Bansal admitted that he was not happy with the current scenario, where passenger fares were being cross-subsidised by high freight fares.

However, depoliticising the fixing of fares by setting up an independent tariff authority is easier said than done. Most politicians, including those from the ruling Congress, are unlikely to allow an independent authority to decide on passenger fares.