Lalu all set to pamper passengers in his fourth railway budget

New Delhi, Feb 18 (UNI) For a fourth straight year, train passengers may not have to dig deep in their pockets on account of ticket fare as Railway Minister Lalu Prasad gets ready to spill the contents of his budget in the Lok Sabha on February 26 amid firm indications that it will have a pronounced people and business friendly flavour.

Top class passenger amenities, fillip to infrastructure through Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects and tapping new avenues to enhance revenues like inclusion of tourism industry are likely to be the three defining features of the coming rail budget, the Ministry officials pointed out.

Introduction of more 'Garib Rath' trains, converting Mail and Express trains into super fast ones, running all popular trains with 24 coaches from the existing 18 and improving occupancy of trains by another five per cent through passenger profile management are also high on the minister's agenda.

I have no plans of hiking passenger fares. I have turned the Railways around without increasing fares in any category, says Mr Prasad, whose out of the box ideas have transformed the loss-laden and customer-unfriendly transport behemoth into a customer-oriented, profit-driven enterprise and an engine of growth.

With the 'management guru' hat sitting firmly on his head and laudatory messages coming from UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Prasad will not like to tinker with the existing fare structure at least not directly.

In last year's budget, fares of first class AC and second class AC were reduced by 18 per cent and 10 per cent respectively while third AC was left untouched. In order to reduce losses in passenger fare segment, he announced super fast status for 200 trains and thus got additional Rs 20 per ticket from such trains.

The minister may be tempted to once again fall back on this surreptitious measure to earn more income through passenger tickets.

Further, third AC fare may be brought down marginally and AC first and second class rationalised. This is a good way of countering the competition from low-cost airlines, they contend.

Instead of squeezing the passengers, Mr Prasad will play on volumes --- more passengers and more freight traffic by improving the amenities and infrastructure. The new targets include 730 million tonnes of freight loading and 50 per cent reduction in passenger business losses without any hike in fare, point out officials.

''A vacant seat is a lost seat. I will like my ministry to 'play on volumes', getting more people to use the Railways because full capacity trains would ensure a sharp increase in revenues,'' says Mr Prasad.

Garib Rath trains, providing air-conditioned rail travel at an affordable cost, would run from all state capitals across the country, he recently said at Patna. However, this will depend on the capacity of Railway Coach Factory, Kapurthala and Integrated Coach Factory, Perambur to keep pace with the increasing demand for specialised coaches having 81 berths instead of 64 in normal coaches.

The Railways is also actively considering a proposal to redesign AC three-tier coaches for general trains and increase their capacity. This year may see an increase in coaches in some 190 trains.

''Most of our sections are saturated and there is a limit to our capacity of running additional trains. A way out is to run longer trains which can carry more passengers,'' the officials point out.

Aiming to achieve a fund balance of Rs 20,000 crore by March this year, the Railways is planning a major strategy to qualitatively upgrade the profile of passenger amenities. Zonal Railways have been instructed to identify and hire consultants and architects to refurbish the design and look of stations.

Work to convert 17 major stations into world class ones would be set into motion in the next fiscal. These stations will be equipped with facilities like shoeshine, automatic vending machines for water and soft drinks, outlets of fast food chain Nirulas and McDonalds', fully air-conditioned waiting rooms, shopping malls, multiplexes, food plazas, multi-level underground parking and budget hotels.

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