Garib Rath takes no-frills airlines, Rajdhanis headlong

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Picking up the gauntlet from the low-budget airlines, the Railway Ministry today announced that the fare for the Saharsa-Amritsar Garib Rath, the first-of-its-kind fully airconditioned train for the common man, will be 50 per cent less, not 25 per cent, as compared to a normal three-tier AC train.

The ministry also exuded confidence that Garib Rath trains would earn Rs 2.5 lakh more per trip than a Rajdhani train.

''In the Railway Budget 2005-06, it was announced that the fare for Garib Rath trains would be 25 per cent less as compared to a normal three-tier AC train. We have taken a bold step, based on sound economics, to reduce it by 50 per cent,'' Mr Sudhir Kumar, OSD to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, told reporters here.

Mr Prasad flagged off the first Amritsar-Saharsa Garib Rath at Saharsa, once his parliamentary constituency in Bihar, this morning.

The fare for Saharsa-Amritsar in Garib Rath train will be Rs 695 (Rs 580 base fare and Rs 115 as other charges like safety surcharge, reservation charge and suferfast charge) as compared to Rs 1279 (Rs 1164 base fare and Rs 115 as other charges) for a three-tier travel in a normal AC train.

For AC chair car in Garib Rath, the fare will be Rs 595 as compared to Rs 905 in a normal AC train, less by 45 per cent.

''This is our challenge to low budget airlines like Air Deccan that have taken away our AC three-tier travellers,'' Mr Kumar said.

''We hope to turn the economics on its head by increasing the volume of passengers in Garib rath trains,'' he pointed out.

The introductory Garib Rath train has altogether 18 coaches, comprising 12 sleeper coaches, four chair cars and two generator cars, which will supply power for the air-conditioning system.

It has 75 berths in sleeper coach as against 64 in the normal AC three-tier coaches. In chair cars, the number of seats has been augmented from 72 seats to 104.

''A full-capacity Garib Rath can carry 1828 passengers as against 799 in a Rajdhani train which has normally 17 coaches, including a pantry car and two power cars,'' Mr Kumar said.

''This is a win-win situation both for the Railways, because it will earn more, and for the passengers, who can now travel in AC comfort by shelling out Rs 130 more for a non-AC sleeper class.'' Pointing out that seven lakh passengers travelled in non-Ac sleeper class daily, he said the basic objective behind the launch of a Garib Rath train was to provide air-conditioned comfort this segment of passengers.

Mr Kumar said long distance mail and express traisn were incurring an annual loss of Rs 2000 crore. ''If Garib Rath experiment becomes successful -- and we are quite confident about it -- we will turn the economics of train travel on its head. By reducing the fare, we intend to make profits, a proposition which was difficult to think three-four years ago.'' Apart from its maiden run from Saharsa (Bihar) to Amritsar, the Garib Rath will also be run on three other routes--Nizammuddin-Patna, Nizammuddin-Bandra (Mumbai) and Nizammuddin-Chennai.

''We hope to introduce the three remaining Garib Rath trains before the presentation of next year's Railway Budget,'' he said.

UNI/SKS PA MIR RN1609