Indian Railways earned revenue of over Rs 2,800 crore from child travel fare norms

An RTI response indicated that revising child travel fare norms resulted in additional revenue of more than Rs 2,800 crore for Indian Railways over the previous seven years.

According to the response from the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the financial year 2022-23 alone generated Rs 560 crore as a result of the amended norms, making it the most profitable year.

CRIS, a Ministry of Railways organization, provides IT solutions in vital sectors such as ticketing and passengers, freight services, train traffic control and operations, and so on.

On March 31, 2016, the ministry announced that children aged 5 years and under 12 years would be charged the full adult fee if they chose separate berths or seats in a reserved coach. The revised norm became effective on April 21, 2016.

Previously, railways provided separate berths for children aged 5 to 12, charging just half the travel fare.

Although children of the aforementioned age bracket were allowed to travel for half the ticket under the revised norm, they do not get separate berths or seats and must be accommodated on the seat of the adult with whom they are traveling.

The CRIS provided year-wise data in tabular form for two categories of children based on their fare selections from the fiscal year 2016-17 to 2022-23.

According to the data, almost 3.6 crore children traveled paying half fare throughout these seven years without opting for a reserved seat or coach. Over 10 crore children, on the other hand, chose a separate berth/seat and paid a full fare.