FRONT PAGE | Saturday, July 4, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Rail Budget shows Mamata, cheers all
Kumar Uttam | New Delhi
For one and all, the Rail Budget came with a message — feel good. Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is now preparing for the final showdown with communists in her home State of West Bengal, on Friday unveiled a Budget that cheered the common man, industry and stock market alike. The Budget raised questions about the financial projections made by her predecessor Lalu Prasad, with Mamata disclosing that there was a revenue dip of Rs 4,680 crore over interim Budget estimates presented this February.
Realistic but populist, the Budget came with a slew of announcements for farmers, women, youth, minority, tribal, journalists and, of course, West Bengal. Mamata did not touch the passenger and freight charges but made the Tatkal scheme more user-friendly by reducing the minimum charge by Rs 50. “Railways is an organisation with twin responsibilities — commercial and social. It will be our endeavour to render all commercial services with a human face,” Mamata said while presenting the Rail Budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Minister announced 57 new trains, with the majority originating, terminating or passing through her home State. She also proposed to introduce 12 non-stop “Duronto Trains” that will have both AC and non-AC coaches. Air-conditioned double decker coaches would also be introduced for inter-city travel.
Pointing out that perceptible improvement in passenger amenities, cleanliness, quality of railway catering, safety and punctuality would be her priority, Mamata announced setting up of an expert committee to advise the Ministry on innovative financing and implementation of the so-called “economically unviable” but socially desired projects. A monitoring committee would ensure that the timeline was adhered to and there was no slippage in project delivery.
A new scheme — Izzat — was launched for the workers in unorganised sector who can now travel upto 100 km with a monthly season ticket of Rs 25. “Ladies Only” EMU train services would be introduced in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata suburban routes — on the pattern of Mumbai suburban lines — and low-cost air-conditioned ‘Yuva Trains’ with seating arrangement would be introduced as a pilot project within three months on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata sectors.
The trains will run from point to point for the distance ranging from 1,000 km to 2,500 km. The fare will be Rs 229 for distances up to 1,500 km and Rs 399 for distances up to 2,500 km. The Minister proposed to review the recruitment policy and to develop a scheme to give better representation to minorities, women and backward classes in railway jobs. The announcement of concession to madarsa students in train fares followed.
Accredited journalists will also be issued photo identification-cum-credit cards to get reservation and a 50 per cent concession and their spouse can also enjoy the same concession once a year.
Indian Railways, Mamata told the House, would also develop cold storages for farmers to store vegetables and fruits. Under the ‘Kisan Vision Project’, special trains will be run from production clusters to consumer centres for perishable products like fruits and vegetables and also for village handicrafts to increase outreach and access to new markets for rural produce.
Mamata proposed a new rail line between Singur and Nandigram (the two villages which shot to limelight after the Trinamool chief led an agitation against land acquisition for Nano plant and chemical hub) and announced a new coach factory with state-of-the-art facilities, exclusively for manufacturing 500 coaches per annum, to be set up at Kanchrapara in West Bengal. A slew of welfare measures was also announced for the railway employee, including scholarships for higher education of girl children of Group D staff and seven nursing colleges on railway land to facilitate the wards of employees in finding a “good” vocational avenue.
Railways to raise commando battalions and increase the number of woman
commandos
27 trains to be extended; frequency of 13 more to be increased
Recruitment policy and
functioning of railway recruitment boards to be reviewed
The period of advance booking under the Tatkal scheme reduced from 5 to 2 days
On-board infotainment services on long-distance trains
50 stations to be developed as world-class stations; 375
others as adarsh stations
Ailing wagon manufacturing units may be taken over
18,000 wagons to be acquired during the current year
Special coaches for disabled and aged persons
1,000 MW power plant at tribal-dominated Adra on the border of West Bengal and Jharkhand
Cash surplus of Rs 17,400 crore before dividend
Railways has investible surplus of Rs 12,681 crore
Annual plan expenditure pegged at Rs 36,336 crore
Non-stop Trains
1. New Delhi-Jammu Tawi
(Tri-weekly)
2. Howrah-Mumbai (AC) (Bi-weekly)
3. Mumbai-Ahmedabad (AC)
(Tri-weekly)
4. Chennai-Delhi (Bi-weekly)
5. New Delhi-Lucknow (Tri-weekly)
6. Delhi-Pune (Bi-weekly)
7. Howarh-Delhi (Bi-weekly)
8. New Delhi-Allahabad (Tri-weekly)
9. Sealdah-New Delhi (Bi-weekly)
10. Kolkata-Amritsar (Bi-weekly)
11. Bhubaneswar-Delhi (weekly)
12. Ernakulam-Delhi (weekly)
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