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Passenger spared from hike

Opposition slams Rail Budget, terms it as "populist". Freight charges to bear the brunt of price hike.

Keeping an eye on the forthcoming assembly elections in her home state of West Bengal, the Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee -- presenting her second Railway Budget today -- spared the passenger from any fare hike. This despite suggestions that passenger fares be increased in the wake of the recent killer earthquake in Gujarat that killed over 30,000 people and destroyed properties worth millions of rupees.

In fact, what is surprising is that Banerjee has not effected fare hike in any category, whether first class or second class. So, there would not be any fare hike across the board. And, its the freight that would have to bear the brunt of the price hike as freight charges were increased by 3% for non-essential items and by 2% in coal, iron and steel.

The increase in freight would raise an additional Rs5bn a year. Banerjee exempted essential commodities like sugar, edible oil, salt, grains and pulses, kerosene, fruits and vegetables and LPG from the 3% hike along with parcels and luggage, newspapers, magazine and medicines. There will, however, be a 2% increase in freight rates for coal and 1% on furnace oil. The changes in rates would be effective from April 1.

Terming it as "populist with an eye on the coming assembly elections in West Bengal" the opposition today lashed out at the Railway Budget, presented by the Railway minister Mamata Banerjee.

Somnath Chatterjee of CPI-M said that major issues had been completely ignored and she (Mamata) had not given any explanation as to why previous projects had remained incomplete. He went on to add that the Railway Minister had failed to address a whole range of issues, which were of immediate need and only sought to divide the country into bits and pieces for carrying on railway projects.

Opposition parties were not the only one to criticize the Railway Budget, Biju Janata Dal of Orissa -- which is one of the allies of the NDA government at the Centre -- said that the entire focus of the Budget was on only two to three major states and Orissa and Chhattisgarh had been completely neglected.

The budget has significantly increased the annual plan outlay for the coming fiscal year by 11% to Rs110.90bn as against Rs100bn in the financial year of 2000/2001.

The rail budget has fixed the freight target at 500mn tons for 2001-02 as against a target of 475mn tons in the current fiscal year. The rail budget projects a 9% growth in passenger traffic and 'other coaching' by 8.8%.

Twenty Four new trains would be introduced, including a New Delhi-Raipur-Bilaspur Rajdhani Express and a New Delhi-Ranchi-Hatia Rajdhani Express, which would be introduced during the coming financial year. Banerjee also increased the frequency of nine trains and extension of an equal number of trains. Seven of the 24 trains connect West Bengal, the state from where Banerjee hails.

RailTel Corporation of India has been set up by the railways to lay down an optical fibre cable along 62,800 route kms of railway track by utilizing railways’ "right of way" to achieve a nation-wide broadband and multimedia network. The Railways has also identified 53 sites for commercial utilization of railway land and air-space to be developed through RITES and IRCON.

The railways is expected to generate a revenue of Rs10bn in the next fiscal year from non-traditional sources of earnings as against the target of Rs7.50bn in the current financial year. The railways proposes to generate Rs7bn by way of leasing of right of way of optic fibre cables, Rs2 bn from commercial exploitation of land and Rs1bn through commercial publicity. Sundry other earnings from traditional sources would increase by 5.4%.

The gross traffic receipts is estimated at Rs394.39bn while ordinary working expenses has been put at Rs301.90bn, an increase of 8.53% over revised estimates. Total working expenses is estimated at Rs386.83bn while the net traffic receipt would at Rs7.55bn.

Track renewal plan head gets Rs20.50bn against revised estimates of Rs16.33bn -- an increase of 23%.

Banerjee has proposed to issue tickets through automatic teller machines at major railway stations. There is also a scheme to provide quicker information to public through cable TV, internet and cellular phones by connecting national train enquiry system to these systems.

A proposal for internet kiosks for ticket retailing is also under consideration. To make ticket refunds easier, it would be fully computerized in all zonal railway.

Top priority would be accorded for providing drinking water, platform shelters, increasing the length of the platform to accommodate longest trains, raising the platform heights and ensuring adequate seating arrangements, Banerjee said.

To improve sanitation at stations, a large number of "pay and use" toilets would be provided along with facilities for mechanized cleaning, she said. The minister announced that 74 more stations would be upgraded as model stations in addition to existing 210 such stations.

Outlining steps initiated for rail safety, Banerjee said a safety grant of Rs150bn from the Centre was being pursued besides operationalisation of safety fund. The outlay for safety-related work in the budget has been put at Rs30bn which covers fresh arising of replacement works.

Action had also been initiated in implementing recommendations of railway safety review committee, she said. The minister said report of a high-level task force, set up to examine the entire issue of security, was under examination.

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