The Hindu Business Line : Mamata to present a 'pro-people' rail budget

NEW DELHI: Amid expectations of improvement in railway amenities and food served in trains, the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee would present a “pro-people'' budget in Parliament tomorrow.

“It will be a pro-people budget, a simple budget, people's budget,'' Ms Banerjee said.

According to sources close to her, the budget in a way would reflect Ms Mamata's vision for the Railways in the coming years and means of generating resources for key projects. High on her agenda would be completion of Kashmir rail link project and putt ing the dedicated freight corridor project on fast track.

As she has gone on record saying that Railways should always have a humane side to it, she is expected to carry out some revision in passenger fares and waive off superfast charges that has come in for flak. She might also announce changes in the Tatkal scheme to make it more passenger friendly.

The sources said Mamata would be constrained to avoid a deficit budget especially when the burden of the Sixth Pay Commission has to be fulfilled for which Railways have to fork out Rs 14,000 crore for implementing it.

Nonetheless, Mamata might extend incentives in freight transport to boost loadings and keep the industry happy in the time of recession, the sources said. She might also push for carrying out railway projects under public-private participation model for which she has already made her stand clear.

Admitting that the expectations from her budget were high, she said she barely got 15 days to work on it as the officials concerned were busy preparing it. The budget is likely to see introduction of more Janata type and superfast trains on the lines of Garib Raths albeit with different names.

Besides, the budget might also find a mention about re-introduction of economic food items at stations like poori-sabzi. The budget might give a further push to several other railway projects including expediting work on railway coach factory in Sonia Gandhi's constituency at Rae Bareli.

While the ongoing work for world class stations would be accelerated, Sealdah in West Bengal is likely to be added in the list for modernisation of stations. The resumption of construction work between Katra and Qazigund section in the Kashmir rail link project is also likely to be announced in the budget. The work has been stopped in the 70-km-long due to the alignment problem since last September. - PTI

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