RailTel to foray into broadband, long distance telephony
RAILWAY'S telecom venture, RailTel Corporation, is embarking on a major expansion plan into the broadband and long distance telephony segment. The company is planning to increase its optic fibre cable network from 26,000-route km to 40,000 km ... More

Nothing to help passengers, railway network: BJP
THE Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party today criticised the Railway Budget by saying that it does not do anything for improving the situation of the common passenger and the functioning of the railway network. Talking to reporters after the ... More

To tide over wagon crunch — Railways to focus on faster turnaround time
THE Indian Railways has decided to improve the turnaround time of wagons in a bid to tide over the wagon crunch. "The turnaround time of wagons has reduced from 7 days to 6.3 days. This means for carrying the same level of traffic we require 10 ... More

Express ideas, but no back-up
THE Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, has once again demonstrated his facile economics by refraining from jacking up either passenger fare or freight fare, though his rationalisation of the goods tariff by pruning the 4,000 commodities into only ... More

Dividend payments: The `unresolved dilemma'
EVEN as the Railways is to fork out a dividend of Rs 3,938 crore to the Centre during the coming fiscal, a big question mark remains on the nature of these payments. This, in turn, springs from the `unresolved dilemma' over whether the capital ... More

Apex chambers give green signal
THE Railway Budget presented by the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, on Saturday was given a green signal by India Inc. Describing the Budget as freight-customer friendly and innovative, the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of ... More

Exchequer dependence on financing Rail Plan on the rise
THE Railways' dependence on the exchequer to finance its Plan investments has gone up significantly in recent years. During the coming fiscal, over 47 per cent of the proposed Plan size of Rs 15,349 crore will be financed through budget ... More

Lalu won't bite bullet; no fare hike yet again
FOR a third successive year in running, there is no increase in rail passenger fares or an effort at `rebalancing' tariffs, currently highly biased in favour of lower classes. Mr Lalu Prasad's Rail Budget for 2005-06 is no different from the ... More

Commodities freight charges to be on volume basis
IN an attempt to use its existing freight capacity better, the Indian Railways has decided to move to a new system of charging commodities on a volume (total wagon capacity) basis. This is against the existing system of charging users on the ... More

Container movement opened up to private players
TO cater to the growing container traffic estimated at 15 per cent annually, the Railways has decided to allow entities other than State-owned Container Corporation of India (Concor) to run container trains, the Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad ... More

Budget ka path often poetry ke saath
AS expected, Lalu's Rail Budget speech did a few whistle-stops to bring in some literary flair to an otherwise tiring harangue. First one came soon after the Minister thundered, "we will not remain content" though "financial performance has been ... More

INTERVIEW