NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The government on Friday pushed through a steep hike in rail passenger and freight fares, in the first dose of a "bitter medicine" Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned of having to administer to revive Asia's third-largest economy.
India's railway network is one of the world's largest, but years of low investment and populist policies have crimped growth and hindered private investment.
From June 25, rail passenger fares will increase by 14.2 percent and freight rates by 6.5 percent, the railways ministry said in a statement.
The last fare hike was in October 2013. Many Indians see the railways - which transport an estimated 25 million people each day - as a service for the "aam aadmi", or "common man".
The rail network ferries often-poor migrants who have missed out on the fruits of two decades of surging growth that have enabled millions of their compatriots to buy cars or travel by air for the first time.
Modi prepared the ground last weekend in comments to workers of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
He asked them to back the steps he planned to restore the health of India's economy, which has suffered its longest slowdown since the country embarked on free market reforms in 1991.
yahoo.com
India's railway network is one of the world's largest, but years of low investment and populist policies have crimped growth and hindered private investment.
From June 25, rail passenger fares will increase by 14.2 percent and freight rates by 6.5 percent, the railways ministry said in a statement.
The last fare hike was in October 2013. Many Indians see the railways - which transport an estimated 25 million people each day - as a service for the "aam aadmi", or "common man".
The rail network ferries often-poor migrants who have missed out on the fruits of two decades of surging growth that have enabled millions of their compatriots to buy cars or travel by air for the first time.
Modi prepared the ground last weekend in comments to workers of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
He asked them to back the steps he planned to restore the health of India's economy, which has suffered its longest slowdown since the country embarked on free market reforms in 1991.
yahoo.com
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