TN commerce groups hails Railway Budget

Chennai, Feb 26 (UNI) The Southern India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) and Andhra Chamber of Commerce (ACC) here welcomed the Railway Budget presented by Union Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav today.

SICCI president S Ramanathan said the new budget would benefit not only the business community but all sections of society.

'Another welcome feature in the Budget is the exploration of public private partership for modernising metro and mini-metro stations and partnership with the private sector on terms in the interest of railways and customer, a step in the right direction.' ''The starting up of dedicated freight corridor from eastern and western by 2007-2008 is to be welcomed, which will fulfil the effort to increase container traffic five-fold to 100 million in 2011-1012,'' he said, adding ''however, SICCI feels the work should be completed within the timeframe, which will avoid not only escalation of cost but also help the railways for increased freight traffic.'' ACC President Baboolal P Rathore said introduction of 32 new trains, 25 tonne axle capacity coaches, high speed short distance trains, e-tickets in petrol pumps and ATM centres were all welcome moves. Besides, efforts were also taken to increase container traffic five-fold to 100 million tonne, reduction in running time of trains, introduction of 800 new coaches in existing trains and introduction of dedicated freight corridors.

Mr Rathore said the Railway Ministry had dwelt more on dynamic measures for safety and cleanliness in coaches, railway tracks, installation of modern computerised electronic detection systems and infrastructure building to improve overall efficiency.

UNI