Mid-Day

Mumbai, Mar 21: Mumbaikars’ relief at Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s decision to desist from hiking the rates of local train tickets for three consecutive years could be short-lived.

If Tata Power Company (TPC), which supplies power to Western as well as Central railways, gets the approval of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) to hike its power tariff, the railways will be forced to hike train ticket rates.

The revised fares are yet to be calculated.
        
TPC purchases power from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh and supplies it to the Central and Western railways, who are its major customers.

Revenue earned from the hike is expected to be spent on buying more power from these states to resolve the shortage in the state to some extent.

In January, Tata Power had submitted its annual revenue requirements to MERC, stating it wanted to increase tariff to bridge the gap between expenditure and revenue.

The Central Railway, worried about the impact of the tariff hike, submitted an appeal on March 20 to MERC asking it to direct TPC to keep tariff rates unchanged.

The appeal says that any increase under the new tariff structure will increase costs by crores of rupees that will ultimately be passed on to the commuter.

TPC, which charges both Central and Western railways a tariff of Rs 3.14 per unit, plans to increase it by 20 per cent.

Said a senior official from TPC, “A tariff hike is imminent. If the railways cannot afford our rates, they may approach other power utilities.”

Some power experts said the profits earned by the railways were enough to pay for the hike in power tariff without hiking train fares.

Said S N Singh, chief electrical distribution engineer, Central Railway, “Changes in ticket fares of local trains depend on the railway ministry.”

Added Satya Prakash, divisional railway manager, Western Railway, “The tariff hike will burden us, but we cannot say how it will affect the local train fares.” The minimum fare was reduced from Rs 6 to Rs 4 in May 2005.

Existing fares

Virar – Churchgate: Rs 13
Kasara – CST: Rs 17
Panvel – CST: Rs 12