Chennai: Taking Express Train from Tambaram Railway Station and Katpadi may be more expensive because the train Ministry has decided to collect a station development fee of Rs 25 for Sleeper and RS 50 classes for class-AC travelers.
Two stations are one of the lists of stations that will be rebuilt by the Rail Land Development Authority.
This step will add to the burden of passengers who have to pay some fees, regardless of fluctuations and various tariffs because of the classification of services such as superfast, AC Express or special trains when all concessions have been removed, said several passengers who are part of the train travelers association at city.
A Southern Railway official said that they had not yet decided which station would be developed, and what fees would be collected.
This will be notified separately.
“There are several programs for the development and rebuilding of the train station that are being carried out in the phase, he said.
R Pandiaraja, a frequent traveler and RTI activist, said that it can be considered an indirect increase in tariffs when applied.
T Sadagopan, an activist Consumers, said, “It’s okay for the train to collect costs but they must first consider doing that after bringing the changes seen at the station.
There are suggestions and some work also occur in the past few decades to develop Mgr Central, Egmore, Batheurtur, Thiruninavur, Avadi and others.
But we still don’t have many facilities at these stations.
“The train ministry must try to speed up this before rushing to introduce the rules that the cost of developing stations can be collected.”