Bengaluru: Due to fall in patronage in high-end trains such as the Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi, the Railways has decided to slash up to 10 per cent on base fares of these trains on certain routes. "For the AC chair car Shatabdi Express on Mysuru-Bengaluru route the fare has been fixed at Rs 300," said Divisional Railway Manager, Sanjiv Agarwal. The Tatkal quota for Rajdhani and Duronto have been cut by 10 per cent, with effect from December 20 and will be effective for six months. The number of RAC tickets in AC sleepers will be increased to 14 from 10, the DRM said.
Meanwhile, a new train will be added in a month from Bengaluru to Ramanagara and back. Later the same train will go to Whitefield and return. And then it will go to Kuppam (Andhra Pradesh) and return to Ramanagara via Bengaluru.
Railway officials said they don't have funds to add new coaches to existing trains. “As of now, there are eight-coach MEMU trains that can carry 1000 people each. We have sent a proposal to the State Government, to provide us 12 coach MEMU trains, which will be able to carry 2500 people. It will cost Rs 360 crore,” explained Sridhar Murthy, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager.
