Panel pulls up Railways for free passes in luxury trains

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Standing Committee has pulled up the Railways for giving “freeloaders” complimentary tickets to travel on luxury trains even though they have been running with an occupancy of just 30 per cent.

The parliamentary panel in a recent report has listed the names of hundreds of passengers who travelled for free on the recommendations of officials of the Railway Board and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) on five luxury trains where fares range from USD 500 to USD 650 (Approx Rs 31,637.50-41,128.75 as per current exchange rate)

Most of the travellers were railway officials.

“The committee are dismayed to note that the provision of complimentary travel is continuing in these luxury trains on the recommendation of either Railway Board or IRCTC or state tourism development corporation,” the report of the committee chaired by MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay said. It also noted that such trains had shown only a 30 per cent occupancy.

Luxury Tourist Trains are premier luxury services offered by Railways/irctc in collaboration with state tourism development corporations.

The Railways run five luxury trains including the Maharaja Express, Golden Chariot, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Deccan Odyssey and Palace on Wheels. The report stated that 30 passengers travelled free of cost in the Maharaja Express in 2012-13, 97 in 2013-2014, 53 in 2014-2015 and 73 passengers in 2015-2016.

“The committee fails to understand the need to provide complimentary travel when these luxury trains have hardly been generating the revenue to meet their own working expenses,” the report said.

The committee also gave a list of other trains such as the ‘Palace on Wheels’ and ‘Royal Rajasthan on Wheels’, with the names of passengers who were given complimentary tickets.

The report said from the list it was clear that these two trains were the favourites of the “freeloaders”, most of whom had been permitted to travel free by top officials of the Railways.

The list of people who travelled free included a former personal secretary and a former Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Railway Minister and various Divisional Managers of zonal railways.

For Palace on Wheels, close to 50 complimentary tickets worth USD 500 per person were distributed in 2011 to top railway officers.

In 2012-13, 46 officers were given free tickets worth USD 575 per head, while in 2013-14 close to 50 officers had availed of the luxury travel. CHENNAI: Thousands of commuters were left stranded across the state as the indefinite strike called by some transport unions over wage-related issues entered the fourth day on Sunday.

Even as private buses were being operated, many passengers complained that they did not carry destination boards unlike government buses.

“I have been waiting here for two hours...i need to go to Vandalur but I do not know which bus to board. We have to go ask the bus drivers every time,” Kanagavel, a passenger at Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus here said.

In several districts, a majority of the buses stayed off roads prompting the transport department authorities to operate them with temporary drivers and conductors.

The state government claimed that 66.49 per cent of buses belonging to State Transport Undertakings were plying since last night across the state.

Transport Minister M R Vijayabaskar had on Saturday said many employees were getting back to work considering the wage revision offered by the government, besides respecting the Madras High Court directive.

He had exuded confidence that more employees will return to work and operations would resume across the state on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Southern Railway operated weekday services on Sunday instead of weekend reduced services in Chennai Beach-tambaram and MRTS suburban sector to accommodate extra rush in view of the strike.

The frequency of local trains will be every 10 minutes on Chennai Beach-tambaram section, instead of every 20 minutes, and a train every 15 minutes on MRTS section instead of every 20 minutes, a Southern Railway release had said.

DMK, the main opposition party in the State assembly, had urged the government to hold talks with trade unions and bring an end to the impasse.