New Delhi, Feb 24 (Inditop.com) Passengers were spared a fare hike, freight rates were cut for grain and kerosene, and 54 new trains proposed in India’s $17 billion railway budget for 2010-11 that also pushes for private capital to expand the world’s second largest rail network under a single management.
“In the present economic situation, when the country is about to return to a high growth path, I do not wish to impose any burden on citizens,” Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee told the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, Wednesday.
“Therefore, I do not propose any increase in passenger fares of any class or category of trains. Similarly, I do not intend to increase freight tariff,” she said in her marathon 110-minute speech, amid numerous interruptions that often made her flare up.
Banerjee also announced the upgrade of 94 stations, launch of double-decker trains, 522 hospitals and diagnostic centres, target of 1,000 km new lines, 10 auto ancillary hubs, high-speed passenger corridors, six drinking water plants and housing for all railway staff in 10 years.
Her proposals involve a total expense of Rs.87,100 crore (Rs.871 billion or $17.42 billion) with gross earnings of Rs.88,281 crore (Rs.882.82 billion or $17.74 billion). This comes after a net profit of Rs.1,328 crore for this fiscal.
“We have set our goals in the Vision 2020 document and we will achieve it,” the minister said, referring to the new policy initiative unveiled in December that has set a target of over 25,000 km of routes into double or multiple lines against 18,000 km today.
“It is a fact that administrative and procedural delays, external and internal, take place, discouraging prospective investors. We will need to overcome this,” she said, adding that the “typical negative approach” must also change.
She, accordingly proposed a new business structure and a special task force to clear proposals within 100 days and said policy guidelines in this regard will be made easy, simple and investment friendly to attract funds to the sector — all of which had India Inc elated.
At the same time, it was evident the feisty minister from West Bengal had an eye to the assembly elections in her state, scheduled next year, unveiling a host of projects that are to come up there — including some new wagon and coach factories.
“I am happy there are lots of projects for West Bengal. But the minister has a clear eye on the assembly elections. The budget has clear political overtones,” Gurudas Dasgupta, Communist Party of India leader who also hails from West Bengal, remarked later.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee were among those in the house, presided over by Speaker Meira Kumar.
This was Banerjee’s fourth budget of her career as railway minister and the second for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its second straight term after being voted back to office in May last year.
According to her, 117 out of the 122 new trains promised in her last budget will be flagged off by March 31, within a matter of seven months, which was a commendable effort.
Seeking to give safety issues due consideration, the minister said there were a few cases of unfortunate accidents in the past and said these would be prevented by adopting the highest level of technology and manpower training and anti-collision devices.
“Within five years, we will have 13,000 out of unmanned level crossings manned – 3,000 this fiscal and 1,000 in the coming fiscal,” she said, referring to the high number of accidents at such crossroads.
Indian Railways runs the world’s second largest network under a single management with a network of 64,015 route-km to ferry 18 million passengers and 850 million tonnes of cargo on 17,000 trains daily from 6,906 stations.
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