Rates Circular 14 of 2004  

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA/BHARAT SARKAR
MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS/RAIL MANTRALAYA
(RAILWAY BOARD)

The General Managers (Comml)
All Indian Railways.

SUB: Rounding off of Chargeable Distance:  Rationalization of fares and freight.
REF:  Board’s letter no.TCR/2043/2002/4 dated 05.02.2003.

 Reference is invited to Board’s above cited letter wherein Zonal Railways were asked to print their new Local Distance Tables (LDT) and Junction Distance Tables (JDT) effective from April 1, 2003, indicating the actual engineering distances of the various sections upto two decimal places.  Board desire confirmation in this regard and that these books have been printed and circulated to other railways also.   

It was also indicated in the letter under reference that the method of ‘rounding off’ to be adopted for arriving at the ‘chargeable distance’ shall be communicated in due course.  The Ministry of Railways have now decided to rationalize the method for arriving at the ‘chargeable distance’ between a specific pair of originating and destination points. The actual engineering distances upto two decimal places of the various sections from originating station to destination station will be added up and the distance so aggregated would be finally rounded off to the next higher kilometer for deriving the chargeable distance.  It may be ensured that for deriving the “chargeable distance”, the summation of individual sectional distances be ‘rounded off’ only once at the end.  This rationalization is aimed at ensuring uniformity in the method of deriving the distance of charging fares and freight for all customers across the Indian Railways. 

In order to have a uniform date of implementation, all railways shall change over to the rationalized procedure with effect from 01.06.2004.  As these instructions have prospective effect and may result in variation in fares and freights  when compared  with  the existing fares and  freight,  neither would  any undercharges be raised by the railways nor would the railways refund charges collected in past cases. Rail users may be intimated of the proposed changes well  in advance and staff may also be made well conversant with the changes contemplated.

           This issues in consultation with C&IS Directorate and with the concurrence of Finance Directorate in the Ministry of Railways. 

(L.Venkataraman)
Director, Traffic Comml (Rates)
Railway Board