Industry all praise for Lalu's populist Rail Budget

New Delhi, Feb 26: The Apex chambers today lauded Railway Minister Lala Prasad's highly populist budget, praising him for reducing the passenger fares, keeping intact the freight structure and his vision for developing the creaking and much required infrastructure.

They, however, said the Railway Minister should have taken a more drastic step in bringing down freight rates, taking note of the fact that the Railway's was gradually giving ground to both road and air traffic. The five per cent reduction in diesel and petrol freight came in for a special word of praise from the captains of the industry. The chambers, however, were worried that the fires of inflation could get further stoked as the incidence of freight would e more on certain commodities. The steel industry was gaga over the fact coaches will be made in future of stainless steel. They found a visionary in Mr Prasad for his funding mechanism for the infrastructure requirements whose figure he outlined at Rs 2,50,000 crore over the next five years.

The basic mode of funding mechanism will be the PPP model. The industry was of the view that establishing new model stations will give a boost to business. The industry leaders also complimented the minister for his measures to make life easier for the passengers, such as e-ticketing, booking tickets on mobiles and providing information online about the timings of trains.

UNI