New Delhi: A soft Railway Budget for 2003-04 on February 26 proposed no hike in passenger fares and freight rates and made cheaper Rajdhani and Shatabdi travel and carriage of a number of goods like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), diesel, petrol and cement by rationalising the fare structure.

Presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar also proposed to reduce fares in select trains in non-peak period, to give competitive edge in the face of similar concession extended by Airlines.

As an experimental measure, a 10 per cent reduction in basic fares of AC first class and AC two-tier of all Rajdhani express trains would be given for travel during July 15 to September 15 this year.

As a result of rationalisation of fares, the basic fares in Rajdhani trains come down between Hazrat Nizamuddin and Thiruvananthapuram by 22 per cent in AC two tier and 19 per cent in AC first class.

In Shatabdi trains, the reduction in basic fare between New Delhi and Bhopal in executive class will come down by 13 per cent.

Enthused by the freight carrying performance in the current year, the Minister pegged the target for the coming year at 540 million tonnes, which is 25 million tonnes more than the revised target for 2002-03.

The annual plan for Railways for the next fiscal has been fixed at Rs 12,918 crore, including an outlay of Rs 2,311 crore through special railway safety fund.

The ordinary working expenses budgeted at Rs 32,460 crore shows a seven per cent increase over the revised estimates of 2002-03.

In a bid to meet regional aspirations, the Budget proposes introduction of 50 new trains, increase in the frequency of 13 and extension of 24 train services.

Making the freight rates competitive, the Budget proposes classification of certain commodities where Railways are facing stiff competition from road transport.

The classification for petrol is proposed to be reduced by three stages from class 280 to class 250, which lowers the freight rates by 10.7 per cent.

The classification of certain other commodities is being done by two stages. These include high speed diesel, furnace oil, crude oil, naptha, liquified petroleum gas, compressed gases, lubricating oils, iron and steel, pig iron, iron scrap, cement sheets, petroleum coke and soda ash.

Some of the liquid commodities carried in tank wagons, namely molasses, bitumen, refined vegetable oils and sulphuric acid are also proposed to be charged in two stages lower than existing classes. The proposed reduction in freight rates due to lowering of classification by two stages will range from 5.3 per cent to 9.5 per cent.

The classification of cement clinker, manganese ore and caustic soda liquid (in tank wagon) are proposed to be reduced by one stage, which will reduce the freight by around 3.7 per cent.

Encouraged by the success of the 25 per cent concession given to capture short-lead traffic for distances up to 50 km, the Budget proposed to extend the scheme to distance up to 90 kms. It will now be doubled to 50 per cent for traffic up to 50 kms, followed by 25 per cent between 51 and 75 kms and ten per cent beyond 75 kms.

The option of paying freight charges at the time of delivery has been liberalised, with a proposal to reduce the "to-pay" surcharge from 15 per cent to 10 per cent for coal and 10 to 5 for all other commodities.

PTI