Will Mamata Banerjee levy surcharge on Mumbai train commuters?

With the railways facing a serious funds’ crunch this year, commuters in Mumbai are keeping their fingers crossed as they may have to pay extra money if the ministry of railways decides to levy the surcharge on Mumbai commuters that has been pending for years after the implementation of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP).

The other things expected for Mumbai include more trains, announcements of additional ladies special local, nod for running 12-car trains on harbour line, funds for the second phase of MUTP.

However, railway officials said that given the political compulsions, the surcharge may not come in force immediately. The Indian railways and the government of Maharashtra had taken a loan of around Rs1, 650 to fund the railway upgrade in the city.

The loan was to be repaid at 8% rate and a surcharge was to be levied on rail tickets every three years, which would have garnered Rs 240 crore to be paid back. A senior official said that the first surcharge was to be levied in 2003, the second in 2006 and the third in 2009. However, not a single surcharge has been levied so far.

With the railways stuck in a funds’ crunch at a national level, many projects have either been silently shelved or kept in the freezer.
“The MUTP is taking care of building capacity of the railways in Mumbai. The crowd is increasing so fast that it becomes difficult to cope. We are increasing the length of trains and trying to match up,” a senior officer, working in Mumbai for more than three years said.

“The problem is with the pace of the MUTP project. So much of time is consumed in various permissions leading to delays that the cost of the project escalates. Once this happens, the project is stuck as there’s no additional money to fund it,” Subhash Gupta, a member of National Railway Users Consultative Council, said.

“Nearly 70 lakh commuters travel daily on various sections of Mumbai suburban railways. Commuters have been experiencing several hardships as many projects are awaiting completion due to improper allocation of funds. The ministry has been allocating about 400 to 800 crore religiously every year so that the MUTP on-going projects continue,” he added.

Railway passenger associations in the city met the top boss of Indian Railways in New Delhi a month ago and have demanded a local train line through the Bandra Kurla Complex ahead of the railway budget in their 23-point presentation. “We have demanded better medical and fire fighting facilities and converting all trains into 15-car trains to increase capacity,” Madhu Kotian of the association said.