The Hindu Business Line : Rly Budget passed; train enquiry to be outsourced

THE Union Railway Minister, Mr Lalu Prasad, today announced that train enquiry service would be outsourced to telecom companies and assured that projects would not be allowed to suffer for want of funds.

He also announced sops for Kerala including a new superfast Express between New Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Pointing out that the move to outsource enquiry was aimed at raising resources for the Railways through revenue sharing methods, Mr Prasad said that Railway services like train enquiry system would be outsourced to call centres which offer maximum commission.

At present, such outsourcing is in practice only in Patna, where Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) operates the call centre. BSNL gives 15 paise per enquiry to RailTel, a subsidiary of the Railways.

The Railway Budget 2005-06 and the relevant Appropriation Bill were passed by voice vote following the brief reply by the Minister to a marathon debate. The House also gave its nod for the Supplementary Demands for Grants of over Rs 2,750 crore.

Accepting the demand from Kerala and Delhi, the Railway Minister said that the Kerala Express between Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi would not be extended to Chandigarh as announced earlier in the Budget.

However, keeping in view the demands of people of Punjab and Haryana, he said the Kerala Sampark Kranti Express, which is scheduled to start its operations this month, would be extended to Chandigarh.

Additionally, a weekly train would be started between Ernakulum and Bangalore and the frequency of the Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore-Maveli Express would be increased to thrice a week from twice a week.

He assured that the Quilon-Punaloor gauge conversion will be completed during the 2005-06 period and added that 50 kilometre-long new track doubling work would be undertaken in order to increase trains connecting Thiruvananthapuram.

This will be in addition to the doubling work between Ernakulam and Kottayam via Kayamkulam, adding that five new rail over-bridges would be established in Kerala in addition to 52 on which work was in progress.

He also proposed a new mail express train between Kanpur and Mumbai. On apprehensions voiced by members that the reduction in budgetary support would affect the modernisation programme of the railways, Mr Prasad said the budgetary support this fiscal has been fixed at Rs 8,857 crore and for next year Railways is expected to get Rs 7,231 crore.

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