Children to be charged full-ticket rates for rail berth from April 22
Posted on: 26/Mar/2016 2:59:05 PM
Indian Railways has taken a decision to charge full fare for children aged 5-12 if a separate seat or berth is sought. Till now, children in this age group were entitled to a separate seat or berth at half the fare.
This small change in Railways` child fare rule could ensure the availability of 20 million additional confirmed berths or seats in a year for other passengers without the state-run transporter spending a single penny, while adding over Rs 525 crore annually to its coffers.
The half rate will still available, but without a seat or berth. In such cases, parents or the accompanying passenger will have to share their reserved space with the kids. Children under five years of age will continue to enjoy free ride (without a berth) in trains.
The new rule will come into effect from 22nd April. On the one side, this decision could adversely affect the travel budget of families. On the other side, the decision has potential to release 20 million confirmed berths to other travelers, including senior citizens and women.
Once the new rules are in place, the transporter calculates that availability of 20 million additional berths a year will be equivalent to running 20,000 additional trains annually and 54 additional trains every day.
The move would also help in generating additional revenue of around Rs 525 crore a year along with ensuring optimal utilization of available accommodation in trains,.
In 2014-15, the number of child passengers aged 5-12 who opted for berths on half fare was around 2.11 crore.
A Railway official informed that, "the decision will help in augmenting passenger transport capacity till the time the sanctioned works for creating additional tracks are completed to facilitate running of more trains."
The redeeming part of this decision affecting the ticket fare for children is that there will be no change in the rule for child fare of unreserved tickets, which means the rate for children of 5-12 years for unreserved class will continue to be half of the adult fare. The number of child passengers in unreserved class was 6.20 crore in 2014-15.
