With the UPA facing flak over price hike, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge took care in his interim Rail Budget not to impose any burden on passengers and did not touch freight tariff. However, he unveiled plans for involvement of the private sector in modernisation of the Railways.
It being an election year Kharge introduced several new trains and services including Premium Path trains named Jai Hind and brought Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh into the railway network. later, addressing reporters outside Parliament Kharge said he was not for populism but wanted to be “realistic” to ensure the Railways thrived. “I do not want to compete with anybody for popularity, I am just interested in the growth of Railways,” Kharge said when reminded of former Railway Minister lalu Prasad’s reduction of passenger fares by two per cent in the interim Rail Budget of 2009.
Though, Andhra MPs did not allow Kharge to present the entire speech, he announced 73 new trains, rail connectivity to Vaishno Devi from a few cities, more high-speed trains and said Railways would explore low-cost option of semi-high-speed trains at 160-200 kmph on New Delhi-Chandigarh and New Delhi-Agra routes. Kharge also unveiled passenger amenities like SMS alerts, ticketing on mobile phones in the unreserved segment and online booking of meals in trains.
Expressing “deep” concern over recent accidents, Kharge spoke of providing ‘vigilance control devices’ in all electric and diesel locomotives to monitor the alertness of drivers to ensure safety of trains. Kharge later tabled the budget in the Rajya Sabha amid unruly scenes. He said an independent Rail Tariff Authority is being set up to rationalise fares and there was a proposal to expand dynamic pricing of tickets in line with the airline industry. RTA would advise the Government on fares and freight charges.
The Annual Rail Plan has been pegged at Rs 64,305-crore with a budgetary support of Rs 30,223-crore and investment is being stepped up through private sector partnership. “Apart from attracting private investment from domestic investors, the Government is mulling enabling FDI to foster creation of world-class infrastructure,” he said.
Announcing that Governments of Karnataka, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana had agreed to share costs of several projects, Kharge urged other States to follow suit. He said a joint feasibility study for Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor, co-financed by the Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency would be completed in 18 months while its business development study undertaken by French Railways would be completed by April 2014.
Talking financial performance, he said Railways had met from its own resources the additional impact of Rs 100,000-crore because of 6th Pay Commission. “We are confident of surpassing freight earnings target which has been increased to Rs 94,000-crore from Rs 93,554-crore in budget estimates. Considering the trend of passenger earnings, the revised target has been kept at Rs 37,500-crore,” Kharge said.
Considering the trend of earnings and expenditure, the revised plan outlay stands at Rs 59,359-crore. The operating ratio was likely to be 90.8 per cent as against the budgeted target of 87.8 per cent. “In a marked improvement from the last two years, Railways will end the current year with surplus, and fund balance would increase from Rs 2,391-crore at the beginning of the current fiscal to Rs 8,018 crore at the end of March 2014,” he said.