Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday termed the Rail Budget as “futuristic” and “passenger centric” and said it lays out a clear roadmap to make the national transporter the key driver of the country’s economic growth. He tweeted: RailBudget 2015 is a forward looking, futuristic & passenger centric budget, combining a clear vision and a definite plan to achieve it,” he tweeted. He said the budget is a watershed moment for Railways, marking a paradigm shift from discussing coaches & trains tocomprehensive railway reform. “I am particularly delighted that for the 1st time there is a concrete vision for technology upgradation & modernisation of the Railways,” he said in another tweet.
NO NEW TRAINS
While no new trains were announced, Railway minister Suresh Prabhu said these would be announced in the ongoing session itself, pending completion of track renewal work and review of line capacity.”At present, due to over-utilised line capacity and backlog in track renewals, there are speed restrictions which lead to delay in running more number of trains. “The review will be completed soon so that we canannounce new trains and increase frequency in this session,” Prabhu said.
MORE SPEED
The speed of trains connecting major metro cities would be increased up to 200km per hour(kmph) on nine select railway corridors. “The speed of nine railway corridors will be increased from the existing 110 and 130km per hour to 160 and 200kmph respectively so that inter-metro journeys like Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight,” Prabhu announced. This will involve upgradation of track including turnarounds, improve rolling stock to higher standards and adopting improved methods of track recording, monitoring and maintenance. Efforts would continue to “pursue with vigour” the special projects like high speed rail (Bullet Train) between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
LONG-TERM DEBT
Railways to use long-term debt for development projects. Ruling out privatisation, Prabhu today said Railways will now depend largely on long-term borrowings rather than changes in passenger fares or using tax payers money for its various development projects. “Loan is way forward (infrastructure) development. Countries like US, China and Europe have taken loans for development of their infrastructure,” Prabhu told the media.
BULLET TRAINS
No word on bullet trains. “Our thrust would be on basic facilities first like sanitation and time-bound arrival of trains which is going to be implemented in the stipulated time period. Those would be focus areas.”
DISSATISFIED: SENA
The Railway budget came in for criticism from within the ruling alliance, with Shiv Sena claiming it lacked clarity on how the money will come for the various projects. “We are completely dissatisfied with the budget. They have said so many things in the budget. But from where will the money come?,” senior Shivsena leader and North-west Mumbai MP Gajanan Kirtikar said, adding the budget has kept everyone in “dark”.
BORROWINGS
Railways will borrow `17,655crore from markets through its two companies IRFC and Rail Vikas Nigam for capital expenditure during
2015-16, a nearly 47 per cent increase over the current fiscal year’s revised estimate. The market borrowing as per the revised estimate by these two companies during the current fiscal was pegged at `12,045 crore from markets, according to the Railway Budget for 2015-16
LACKS VISION, WEAVING DREAMS, NO ROADMAP: CONGRESS
Opposition has attacked the Railway budget, saying it lacked vision and a road map to execute the “nice ideas it is full of”. Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and TMC’s Dinesh Trivedi, both of whom are also former railway ministers, slammed the budget for lacking in substance and
merely “weaving dreams.” “It’s a nicely-worded budget speech. The minister says he will get into PPP model, BoT agreements, etc. If you depend on others, you are unlikely to meet your targets,” Kharge said.
GOING TO MOON, YES, BUT HOW?
TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi, who was once a railway minister, said the budget has woven a dream for people but lacks plan to fulfil it. “It’s like saying I will go to moon. It’s an idea, a dream but what is important is how are you going to reach there.
It’s all about future but your finances presently suffer from almost 50 per cent shortfall. How are you going to meet the gap?”
‘COMPLETELY HOLLOW’
Senior BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy criticised the Railway budget, calling it “hollow and disappointing.” He said he would give only 2 out of 10 points to it. “It’s completely hollow. He (Prabhu) spoke of an idea but that idea has not been enunciated, meaning not much thought has gone into it,” he told PTI.
17% RISE IN PASSENGER REVENUE
Railways’ earning from passenger traffic is estimated to rise by nearly 17 per cent to `50,175crore in the next financial year as it expects to carry more passengers on the long-distance trains. The revenue is expected to rise to `43,002crore in 2014-15 fiscal (revised estimate) from `36,532.25crore the previous year, according to the Rail Budget document. Out of the total revenue projection for next fiscal, the sleeper class (mail & express) would contribute the maximum `13,338.90crore, up from `11,247.93 crore this fiscal.
BUDGET TO PUSH PRICES
Prices of food grain, pulses, cement, coal and steel are likely to go up following the proposal to hike rail freight by up to 10 per cent for various commodities. The Railway Budget has proposed a hike in freight rates for 12 commodities in the range of 0.8 per cent to 10 per cent. The increase in freight charges by 10 per cent on urea is also expected to add to the subsidy burden. “With the increase in freight, the subsidy paid for movement of urea will increase by another `300crore from current level of `3,000crore,” Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) DG Satish Chander said. PTI
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