LAHORE, Oct 30: The Pakistan Railways informed the Lahore High Court on Thursday that it had to levy various fees and increase charges because the federal government has issued it a warning to cover the huge losses or face cut in development projects financing.

The railways owed more than Rs19 billion in overdraft, the organization said in reply to a writ petition which questioned the increase in documentation charge for ticketless travellers from Rs5 to Rs25 and introduction of a charge of Rs5 an hour for the use of waiting rooms at major railway stations.

Defending the raise in documentation charges, it said that the Rs20 increase has caused an astronomical growth in the revenue within one month.

It said the PR earnings on this account stood at Rs460 million in May 2001 and reached Rs543 million by the end of June.

The increase had also promoted the trend of purchasing ticket from windows at railway stations. This was substantiated from the data that the number of ticketless travellers had come down from 150,392 in May 2001 to 128,392 by the end of the next month.

Regarding the introduction of a fee of Rs5 an hour for the use of waiting rooms, the railway has stated that such a facility was available nowhere in the world.

The railway was responsible for providing benches, chairs, fans, water and toilets. The maintenance of waiting rooms was costing much and these also had become a safe place for criminals. That was why entry to waiting rooms had been made subject to a nominal fee, the reply said.

The writ petition was filed by Advocate M.D. Tahir as another public interest issue and its hearing has now been deferred.