The government has said it had no choice but to hike railway fares as maintenance of public services comes at a cost, Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today said.

"The maintenance of standards in public services comes at a cost. That cost has to be defrayed in a Public Private partnership," Tewari tweeted.

Yesterday, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal had announced an across-the-board hike in fares of all classes from midnight of January 21 to net an additional Rs 6,600 crore a year.

The announcement, which was a made only about a month ahead of the Railway budget, is the first such increase in Railway fares in nearly a decade.