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Suresh Prabhu is working on ideas to take out Indian Railways from mounting losses. He proposed few ideas such as –

• Giving up subsidy on railway fare voluntarily
• Last – Minute discounts on vacant berths
• Special weekend fares on some trains

These were few ideas which came out from Prabhu to boost Railway’s revenue. These suggestions are already sent to Railway Board in writing and in few days Railway Board might arrive on any decision.

Although railway officials are sceptical towards asking passengers to give up their subsidy. According to them it will be tricky and might not work as it worked in case of LPG.

In case of LPG connections it was easier to ask customers to give up their subsidy as their bank accounts were linked directly but for railways it might prove tricky, although a pilot project will be deployed in near future on e-ticket bookings.

For some time now IRCTC has been displaying on its website that only 57% of journey cost is recovered through by railways. However this might be inaccurate in most cases as exact data is not available with ministry.

Railway will initially target to compete with other commercial modes of transportation for sub 200-km distance category. Apart from this a last minute discount on 10% vacant berths are also under process though information of the same to public is yet to be resolved.