Lalu to present 'please-all' budget on Feb 26

New Delhi, Feb 25: With the Railways' coffers brimming with huge cash surplus, an emboldened Lalu Prasad will present his fourth budget in Parliament tomorrow, amid indications that passenger fares will not be raised for yet another year while more 'Garib Rath' trains, allowing airconditioned travel at affordable costs, will be launched to link state capitals.

Security on trains, which has never been a forte of Indian Railways, will also find a strong mention in the budget against a backdrop of two lethal terror attacks on trains, July 11 blasts in Mumbai suburban train system and February 18-19 explosion in Samjhauta Express.

Mr Prasad is sure to make far-reaching announcements for beefing up security in trains to soothe the jangled nerves of travelling pasengers.

However, there are two factors that are going to cheer up the minister.

One is the kudos from President APJ Abdul Kalam in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament, lauding Mr Prasad for scripting a spectacular turnaround of the Railways.

The second is the approval from the Union Cabinet to the proposal of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), which will dramatically speed up freight movement from Mumbai and Kolkata to the hinterland in north India.

''Over the last 30 months, railway freight volumes have grown by 8-10 per cent and growth in passenger volumes has doubled,'' Dr Kalam observed in his address.

The new targets include 730 million tonnes of freight loading and 50 per cent reduction in passenger business losses without any hike in fare.

Aiming to achieve a fund balance of Rs 20,000 crore by March-end, this year's Rail Budget, the first of the XI Five-Year Plan, is crucial because the Public Private Partnership (PPP) is all set to become Railways' new business model for development of infrastructure and passenger amenities. The ball has been set rolling by privatising the container business.

Mr Prasad says his ministry has formulated an ambitious plan for the modernisation and growth of Railways, entailing an expenditure of Rs 3,00,000 crore over a period of five years, and 40 per cent of it is expected to come under the PPP model.

''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 transport behemoth into a customer-friendly, profit-driven enterprise.

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 class 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. Instead of squeezing the passengers, Mr Prasad will play on volumes, more passengers and more freight traffic by improving the amenities and infrastructure.

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.

Mr Prasad will also announce a major strategy to qualitatively upgrade the profile of passenger amenities. Work to convert 17 major stations into world class stations 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, fast food chain oulets, fully air-conditioned waiting rooms, shopping malls, multiplexes, food plazas and multi-level underground parking.

Another focus of the budget is likely to be promotion of tourism through trains. The Tourism Ministry has impressed upon the Railways the need to jointly launch package tours, like the Mahaparinirvan Buddhist Circuit train, under the 'Incredible India' programme.

Facilities like satellite radio, wi-fi-enabled Internet facilities on board Shatabdis and Rajdhanis and catching live TV programmes while travelling in Shatabdi trains are also likely to be announced.

All these measures are intended to substantially increase passenger services revenue which would minimise loss in the segment by over Rs 1000 crore. In 2005-06, it lost over Rs 6000 crore in passenger services.

Freight business, however, continue to be the main focus in order to make a profit of Rs 20,000 crore in 2006-07.

Infrastructure development will be a major focus area. With capacity augmentation high on the agenda, the Railways will focus on modernisation of wagon technology, advanced signalling and telecommunications, induction of high horsepower locomotives and use of IT to improve transit time and lower unit cost production.

UNI

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