Starting Friday, Indian Railways is set to introduce surge pricing on tickets for at least three trains — Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto.
Along the lines of airline ticketing and the much-criticised Ola and Uber fares, the pricing will now be dynamic.
While 10 percent of the seats will be sold at the normal fare in the beginning, it will go on increasing by 10 percent with every 10 percent of berths sold with the ceiling limit at maximum 50 percent depending upon the demand and the surge fares will be capped at 1.5 times the base fare.
The price rise is set to be effective from 9 September, but will not be applicable on tickets that have already been sold.
Criticising the move, the Congress said that the proposal should have been introduced in the Parliament. The party demanded immediate rollback of rail surge pricing on Thursday.
Rahul Gandhi targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was “looting the common man.”
“The speed of the train may increase or not, but Modiji has put the fares on the fast track. Modiji’s model is to loot from the common people and provide relief to some of his industrialist friends,” the Congress Vice President tweeted.
Dubbing the move as “draconian” that would hit the common man hard, a Congress spokesperson said that the Delhi High Court has already quashed the entire surge pricing concept as arbitrary and excessively burdening the consumer in case of Uber and Ola cabs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, defended its decision by saying that the extra funds are needed to modernise Indian Railways.
For 2AC and Chair Car, the maximum hike is 50 percent while for 3AC, it is 40 percent. Other supplementary charges like reservation charges, superfast charge, catering charges and service tax as applicable shall remain unchanged. There will be no change in the existing fare for 1AC and Executive Class of travel in premier trains.
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)