New Delhi: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday announced many populist measures on Friday while presenting the Interim Railway Budget for 2009-10 in Parliament.
With an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Lalu announced an across-the-board two per cent cut in fares of ordinary and AC class. He also announced reduction in the fares of ordinary passenger trains by Rs one for fares costing upto Rs 50 for journey above 10 km.
Presenting the vote-on-account for expenses in the first four months of next fiscal, Lalu made no changes in freight rates.
Recalling that he had decided to reduce the second class fares of all mail, express and ordinary trains by five per cent for tickets above Rs 50 last year, Lalu said respecting the aspirations of the long distance passengers he has decided to reduce the second class and sleeper class fares of all mail and express and ordinary passenger trains by two per cent for the ticket costing more than Rs 50.
He said during the last four years, he had reduced the fares of AC First class by 28 per cent and AC II tier by 20 per cent.
The Minister said since the fare for rail travel for 10 km and below has already been reduced from Rs four to Rs one, this reduction will not be applicable for second class rail journey upto 10 km.
Even as air travel is reportedly reflecting reduction in number of passengers due to economic slowdown, there has been a significant increase in the number of passengers of these classes on the Railways.
"Therefore, I have decided to reduce the fares of AC First Class, AC II tier and AC III tier and AC Chair Car by two per cent," he said amidst thumping of desks by members of ruling benches in Lok Sabha.
In another major announcement aimed at the electorate in Bihar, Lalu said that a pre-feasibility study would be conducted soon to run bullet trains between Delhi and Patna.
In the wake of his visit to Japan, Germany and France to see the running of trains at speed between 300 and 350 km per hour, Lalu said action is on for examining feasibility of running bullet trains between Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune, Hyderabad-Vijayawada-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore, Ernakulam and Howrah-Haldia.
Railways will also go on a major expansion drive with Lalu saying that wagon production would be increased from 6,600 To 15,000 per year and the railways would be investing Rs 2.3 lakh crore in the 11th Economic Plan.
He also announced the electrification of 1,000 km of railway lines completed in 2008-09.
He also claimed that steps to connect the Kashmir Valley to the rest of the country through a railway track has been initiated and the railway line between Anantnag and Rajwansher in the Valley would be extended to Qazigund in four months.
"1,100 kms of new rail lines have been laid down," said Lalu.
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In order to increase efficiency of passenger and goods wagons, Lalu announced that passenger trains will have 22 per cent more capacity and goods trains will have 78 per cent more capacity.
Surveys for 14 new lines, gauge conversion of three and doubling of eight railway lines are proposed to be undertaken.
The Budget estimates for 2009-10 project a freight loading target at 910 million tonnes -- an increment of 60 million tonnes on 2008-09 -- and the number of passengers is likely to grow by seven per cent.
Gross Traffic Receipts (GTR) is estimated at Rs 93,159 crore, an increase of Rs 10,766 crore over revised estimate of 2008-09.
Ordinary working expenses have been budgeted at Rs 62,900 crore to cover the full year impact of Sixth Pay Commission recommendation and the payment of 60 per cent arrears due in 2009-10.
Dividend payable to General Revenues has been kept at Rs 5,304 crore at the current applicable rates. Budgeting ratio has been pegged at 89.9 per cent and annual plan outlay for the next year envisages an investment of Rs 37,905 crore.
The Budgetary support from General Revenue has been proposed at Rs 9,600 crore excluding Rs 1,200 crore to be received from the Central Road Fund.
The Internal and Extra Budgetary Resource component would accordingly comprise 72 per cent of the annual plan.
Recalling performance of the Railways in the last five years under his stewardship, Lalu said the organisation scaled a new pinnacle every year without imposing any burden on the common man.
The Railways are set to establish the historic landmark of earning a cash surplus before dividend of more than Rs 90,000 crore in five years.
"The same Railways which faced a paucity of funds for replacement of over-aged assets in 2001 and which had to defer payment of Rs 2,800 crore as dividend to General Revenues, have now surprised the whole world with a historic financial turnaround," he said.
Speaking about the revised estimates for 2008-09, he said during this period freight loading and earnings registered a growth of 9 per cent and 19 per cent respectively. The passenger earning increased by 14 per cent.
However, in October and November, the growth in freight loading was adversely impacted by the recession in the international markets. There was a steep reduction in iron ore for export and container traffic. Steel traffic also reflected a decreased growth, resulting in a decrease in freight loading and earning in October-November.
He said the situation in December/January reflected some improvement and hoped that the Budget targets for passenger and goods earnings set for the current year will be surpassed.(With inputs from PTI)
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