Indian Railways to levy user fee like airports at major stations

Indian Railways on Thursday said it will soon start levying an additional ‘user fee’ along with train fares at some major stations with high footfall.

Railway board CEO VK Yadav announced that the national transporter will start charging a user fee along with the train fares. Yadav said the additional fee will be used to redevelop railway stations and modernise infrastructure across the network in order to attract investments.

“Where the footfall is increasing we will charge it (user fee) there. We need it to provide world-class infrastructure,” VK Yadav said.

He said only 10-15 per cent of the total number of 7,000 stations will have this additional fee. This means around 700-1,000 railway stations will see a rise in fares. The amount that will be charged as user fee has not yet been decided.

It may be noted that the user fee is similar to the user development fee (UDF) paid by air passengers. The UDF, however, varies from city to city.

The Indian Railways may decide the user fee on the basis of footfall and whether there is a need to redevelop or expand a station. It has come to light that the railway ministry has so far earmarked around 50 stations for redevelopment.

Yadav further added that the user fee will “not impact” the common man and the rise in fare will be nominal. He, however, added that the Indian Railways intends to gradually charge a small user fee at all stations.

According to him, the additional user fee will help in offering better services to passengers. Yadav concluded by saying that the railways is planning to upgrade all major stations in the country.

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