Lalu's Interim Railway Budget

Breaking tradition with an eye on polls, an across-the-board two per cent cut in fares of ordinary and air conditioned classes has been proposed in the interim budget for 2009-10 involving a sacrifice of Rs.700 crore a year. In a departure from practice of refraining from fresh fiscal proposals in a vote-on-account with elections round the year, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad continued the trend of the past five years by also effecting a reduction of Re one in fares costing upto Rs 50 for journey above 10 km in ordinary passenger fares. However, there was no change in freight rates. Prasad said respecting the aspirations of the long distance passengers he has decided to reduce the second class and sleeper class fares of all mail and express and ordinary passenger trains by two per cent for tickets above Rs 50.
Claiming that the economic downturn has not affected the railways as evidenced by significant increase in passengers in the higher classes, he said "Therefore, I have decided to reduce the fares of AC First Class, AC II tier and AC III tier and AC Chair Car by two per cent." His announcement was received by loud thumping of desks by members of ruling benches in Lok Sabha. In the post-budget briefing, the minister rejected his budget as election-ori ented saying he had been reducing fares in all his budgets. Prasad said steps would be taken for improving food served in the trains by focusing on "solid" food and eliminating sundries like soup and chips. He also announced the decision to remove the middle berth in the side berths following widespread complaints from passengers.
In the budget, the minister announced introduction of 43 new trains and extension of services of 14 others. Frequency of 14 trains has also been increased. In the wake of his visit to Japan, Germany and France to see the running of trains at speeds between 300 and 350 km per hour, Prasad said ac tion is on for examining feasibility of running bullet trains between Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad- Mumbai-Pune, Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore, Ernakulam and Howrah-Haldia. Action would also soon be started for conducting a pre-feasibility study to run bullet trains be tween Delhi and Patna.
Surveys for 14 new lines, gauge conversion of three and doubling of eight railway lines are proposed to be undertaken. The Budget estimates for 2009-10 project a freight loading target at 910 million tonnes -- an increment of 60 million tonnes on 2008-09 -- and the number of passengers is likely to grow by 7 per cent. Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav expects to cross the budgeted freight and passenger revenue targets this fiscal despite the economic slowdown.
"We are not only hopeful but confident that the budget targets for passenger and goods earnings set for this fiscal will be surpassed," Lalu said on Friday while presenting the interim railway budget for 2009-10. "Based on the present trend, we have increased the target for goods earnings for 2008-09 by Rs 15.93 billion. Accordingly, the revised estimates for freight earnings have been kept at Rs 542.93 billion," he said. The minister conceded growth in freight loading fell in October and November, and attributed it to the recession in international markets.
"There was a steep reduction in iron ore for export and container traffic. The growth rate of steel traffic also reflected a decrease. This resulted in a decrease in freight loading and freight earnings in the months of October and November."
He said the situation, however, was improving, with freight earnings increasing to Rs 380.93 billion by the end of December 2008, registering a growth of 14 per cent. The railways ministry had taken a number of steps to increase freight revenue, Lalu said. These include transporting double-stack containers on the electrified Western Dedicated Freight Corridor, and improving wagon design to increase capacity of goods rakes by 78 per cent. "These trains can now carry a load of 4,100 tonnes compared with the earlier load of 2,300 tonnes. The capacity of the freight trains comprising open wagons with new design will also be 22 per cent more than before," Lalu said. Construction of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor has commenced from near Dehri-on-Sone February 10, he added.