mumbai the cashstrapped mumbai suburban railways is looking for alternative sources of funding to boost finances so that capacity addition projects passenger amenities and safety can be enhanced according to a white paper to be published by the mumbai railway vikas corporation mrvc the suburban railways is staring at a loss of rs 1400 crore this financial year the white paper is being prepared to highlight constraints under which the railways operates the suburban system central railway general manager s k sood said among the options under consideration is increasing fares of season tickets levying a surcharge on passengers of longdistance trains seeking a share for suburban railways from property tax and getting financial benefits from developers with real estate projects close to stations the railways last attempt to increase fares of season tickets by tweaking the formula for number of trips charged had meet with stiff resistance monthly season tickets are charged an average of 11 trips but the railway had come up with a formula to charge for 25 trips a senior official said we can go in for a gradual increase in trips so that losses are offset the policy of gradual increase was adopted when the government decided to deregulate diesel prices sood said there was a proposal to charge more for shorterdistance travel on suburban trains as they have options to travel by other modes of transport people will prefer to travel by train even if there is an increase in fares for short distances because of speed and reliability he added sood said we can levy a surcharge of rs1050 per person depending on class of travel to get some revenue nearly 37 lakh passengers travel by longdistance trains each day the railways can use the money to build amenities like more foot overbridges toilets and escalators he said sood suggested that suburban fares should be linked to best bus fares he said as and when best fares increase the railways should also seek an upward revision the railways could get benefits from property development because of the presence of a railway station or a line an mrvc official said everybody including the state government local selfgovernment bodies and developers benefit from railway projects except the organization that built the network there was a suggestion to ask corporates to contribute in the form of taxes towards mumbai suburban railways as their employees use the network