Untwisting tracks, a bit

Given that basic railway fares haven’t been hiked for a decade, and losses in the passenger segment have risen four-fold in the last eight years to a projected R25,000 crore in FY13, the 10-12% hike in fares announced by railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal have to be welcomed as yet another sign of the government shaking off its policy paralysis. What makes the fare hike more noteworthy is that, when Mamata Banerjee was a valuable ally of the UPA, Dinesh Trivedi got sacked for proposing smaller hikes than those announced by Bansal on Wednesday.

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