Railway train travel set to get costlier! UDF between Rs10 to Rs40 may be slapped on ticket prices; This is how much you may have to pay

Railway train ticket price: Soon Railway train ticket booking and boarding trains from major big railway stations might get costlier. Railway may impose a user development fee on passengers booking train ticket from this month. If sources are to be believed User Development Fees (UDF) for taking trains from these stations might get central cabinet approval in December itself.  The user fee (UDF) by Indian Railways will be in line with the UDF paid by air passengers.

As per Indian Railways sources, UDF will be implemented on rail fare at around 100 railway stations, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Nagpur, Indore and Chandigarh, in the first phase of the project.

“As per plan, No UDF will be charged on general tickets, while UDF will be higher on AC 1, lesser on AC 2 and similarly in that order on AC 3 & Sleeper class. Government may approve User Development Fees of Rs 10 to Rs 40, ranging on class of travel,” sources told Zee Business.

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This fund will be used to modernise and develop railway infrastructure across the country in order to attract investments.
However, the fee generated through UDF via passengers' Railway train ticket price booking, will not be charged immediately. This will be charged when a Railway station will be redeveloped and commuters will be provided with modern amenities at these railway stations. It is believed that this fee will be implemented from 2022-23.

According to the Ministry of Railways, this UDF will be levied on only those railway platforms that will be redeveloped through IRSDC (Indian Railway Station Development Corporation). The station redevelopment will be done through public private partnership (PPP) model. The Indian Railways officials were asked to notify how much UDF will be levied in January 2020 and by February 6, 2020, tender for the above-mentioned four railway stations' redevelopment were to be issued.

“Indian Railways is planning to levy the user fee across 700-1,000 railway stations,” said a report by Business Today in mid-September.

The UDF will be applicable not only on the passengers but for those also who enter the platform buying platform ticket for receiving or dropping an Indian Railways passenger.
 
At a press briefing in September NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant had said that private investment in the network would introduce competition as well as reduce fares in the future. Kant said that like Japan and South Korea, Railways in India could also drive the country's growth story. "We are confident going forward that railways will contribute 1-2 per cent towards India's growth," Kant had said.

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