India struggles with rail-fare increases
Raising ticket prices in country heavily reliant on rail network represents government’s first big policy challenge.
The price of train tickets in India has been raised by 14 percent in the latest railway budget, a jump expected to hit the middle classes the hardest. People across the country rely on the network for transport and livelihoods, and few are convinced that the extra revenue will help to improve services.
The last-minute decision by Narendra Modi, the new prime minister, to roll back the 14 percent increase for some sectors shows how difficult it is for any government to push through changes that affect hundreds of millions of people, regardless of how necessary they may be for an economic revival.
Al Jazeera’s Nidhi Dutt reports from New Delhi.