By Anuradha Shukla, IANS,
New Delhi : The Railways ministry is going to levy a busy season surcharge on freight, making transportation of goods by trains costlier by 5-7 percent.
“Busy season surcharge will be to the tune of 5 percent on coal and coke, and 7 percent on all other commodities,” a railways official said.
However, container traffic has been spared the surcharge.
“The surcharge is for the October 1, 2008-March 31, 2009 period,” the official added.
Coal accounts for about 40 percent of rail freight traffic.
The railways will impose the busy surcharge for the second time this fiscal. It had issued the same level of busy season surcharge for the March 1-June 30 period.