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Several Chambers of commerce in Karnataka have termed the Railway budget as an ‘operational and practical budget’.
BCIC welcomed the Railways move to set up a ‘Project Management Group’ at the Board level to overcome delays in project execution and similarly setting up a project monitoring and coordination group, consisting of officials of State Governments, railways and professionals to expedite projects at the ground level.
AN Chandramouli, President-BCIC said: “Overall, the Budget looks more operational and practical given the kind of very low elbow space in term of shrinking revenues. Some open-ended announcements, such as launching of bullet trains, FDI and PPP and the Minister’s thrust on improving efficiency, restructuring the Railway Board, outsourcing cleaning services are very positive measures.”
Railways should rope in industries to attract investments under PPP/ BOT modes, set up modern logistic parks, warehouses for freight storage to name a few. He also expressed his happiness over a proposal “to enable Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to foster creation of 10 world class railway stations.
One the other hand, Anuj Sharma, Senior Vice-President said: “The Golden Quadri-lateral Rail Network-linking the four metro cities and running semi-high-speed trains on select routes are the key announcements in the Budget which as an industry body is a very welcome move.”
TransparencyS Sampathraman, President of FKCCI, said the Budget seeks course correction in the light of mismanagement, apathy, populism in starting projects and leaving them incomplete and severe fund crunch that have inflicted the railways over the years.
The Railways has proposed to bring in more transparency in administration and execution of projects. The Budget looks to be more passenger centric on suburban and metropolitan rail services as many services are added in the suburban sector. But it has lost sight of good transport, the target for which is one billion tones.
The Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia) said the dedicated freight corridors are good for SMEs. The proposal to set up modern logistics parks, and warehouses for freight storage could spur industrial growth.
Chidananda M Rajamane hailed the decision to set up a dedicated freight corridor and the vision to make the Railways the largest freight carrier in the world.
“The Minister could have considered announcing some concessions specific to the SME sector, especially given the fact that the Railways are now carrying only 31 per cent of the total freight and are looking to improve its freight turnover.”
Mysore Industries Association (MIA) is unhappy over the budget.
Suresh Kumar Jain, General Secretary said: “We are disappointed for the Chamarajanagar-Mettupalyam Railway Service and upgradation of Mysore Railway Workshop was not taken up.”
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