Opinion - Editorials

Focus on passenger amenities

Given the short lead time available for presenting the budget for 2009-10, it is understandable that Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee decided to keep the focus on passenger amenities and early implementation of on-going projects. In keeping with the trend set by her predecessor, Lalu Prasad, she has left the passenger fares and freight tariff unchanged. As promised while assuming office, Ms Banerjee has introduced a special ‘Izaat’ pass scheme for the unorganis ed workers at Rs.25 per month for travel up to 100 km. The slowdown in the economy also has impacted the budget. In a refreshing departure from the practice of making grand announcements of many projects of suspect viability, she has announced just one new project: a coach factory in the Kancharapara-Halisahar railway complex where railway land is already available. As expected, the Minister came up with a major extension project for Kolkata’s metro. Another promise she has kept relates to simplifying the Tatkal scheme for issue of tickets. These will be issued only two days (instead of five) prior to the date of journey and the charges fixed as a percentage of the fare, with a minimum of Rs.100, down from Rs.150. While there is nothing particularly striking in the budget, there is much to be said for keeping a good performance going.

In his interim budget, Mr. Lalu Prasad had envisaged a plan outlay of a little over Rs.36,000 crore. Ms Banerjee has raised this to Rs.40,745 crore, thanks to the additional budgetary support of Rs.5,000 crore offered by the Finance Minister. She has doubled the outlay on passenger amenities to Rs.1,100 crore and announced plans to develop 50 world-class stations, expand the ticket reservation network, and step up resources for new lines. To ensure timely completion of projects, she has proposed to set up a committee to monitor their implementation. Among the other initiatives are introduction of a dozen non-stop ‘Duronto’ trains between major cities and double-decker air-conditioned coaches on inter-city trains. But the real challenge before the Railways, which has achieved an operating ratio of 92.5 per cent, will be freight-loading. The slowdown in the economy has hurt freight revenue. As such, the target for loading in 2009-10 has been kept at 880 million tonnes, a modest increase over last year’s 850 million tonnes. The dedicated freight corridors need to be developed fast, and the special services for perishable commodities must be pressed into service early. What perhaps cheered the markets were her repeated references to public-private partnership ventures and the move to constitute a committee headed by Sam Pitroda to suggest ways of utilising the Railway’s extensive optic fibre cable network.

Corrections and Clarifications

The Kanchrapara-Halisahar railway complex was misspelt as Kancharapara-Halisahar railway complex in "Focus on passenger amenities" (Editorial, July 4, 2009).

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