New Delhi: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had her eyes firmly on West Bengal assembly election when she presented the Railway Budget 2011-12 in Parliament on Friday. For the third successive year, the Railway Minister refused to increase passenger fares and freight rates even as she announced many projects for her home state.Presenting her third budget in United Progressive Alliance-II in the Lok Sabha, Mamata also announced a slew of concessions including reducing the eligibility age of senior women citizens from 60 to 58 years and the fare concession for men above 60 from 30 to 40 per cent. She also announced the introduction 56 new trains, including nine non-stop Duronto trains and three Shatabdi trains.She started her speech by announcing that Railways are aware of the acute sense of social responsibility and will take all steps to fulfill it. But she barely attended to the mounting deficit of the transportation institution and instead yielded to a gimmick that befits a politician eyeing the polls.
The sops for West Bengal include 34 new services for the Kolkata metro, 50 more suburban services, a coach factory in Singur and a Rail Industrial Park in Jelligham. West Bengal will get another railway project with a track-machine industry being proposed to be set up at Uluberia in West Bengal. A 700 MW gas based power plant is to be set up at Thakurli in Maharashtra.
Her announcements for the state evoked protests from members including those from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, but she appealed to them to be patient for her other announcements.
The Minister also extended the concession for physically- challenged persons and Kirti and Shaurya Chakra awardees to travel in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, besides extending facility of card passes to parents of unmarried posthumous Paramvir Chakra and Ashok Chakra gallantry award winners.
She also proposed to induct 16,000 ex-servicemen in the Railways by March.
The budget proposes the highest-ever plan outlay of Rs 57,630 crore for 2011-12. The gross budgetary support has been projected at Rs 20,000 crore, diesel cess Rs 1,041 crore, internal resources Rs 14,219 crore and market borrowing at Rs 20,954 crore.
The budget estimates for 2011-12 projects a freight loading of 993 million tonnes and a passenger growth of 6.4 per cent.
Gross traffic receipts has been estimated at Rs 1,06,239 crore, exceeding the Rs one lakh crore mark for the first time, despite pressure on finances on account of Pay Commission payout.
Ordinary working expenses have been assessed at Rs 73,650 crore and appropriation to depreciation reserve fund pegged at Rs 7,000 crore.
Provision of Rs 6,735 crore has been made for dividend payment and the excess for Railways for the new fiscal has been projected at Rs 5,258 crore, with an operating ratio of 98.1 per cent.
"To meet the demand for coaches, rail based industries will be set up under Vision 2020. There is a proposal to setup a rail industrial park at Nandigram. Railways will set up a bridge factory in Jammu and Kashmir considering need for large number of bridges on railway projects in the state. A diesel locomotive industry will be setup for the first time in Northeast in Manipur," she said.
She announced that first coach from the Rae Bareli Rail coach factory will roll out in the next three months. Congress President Sonia Gandhi is the Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli.
She said that there is strong economic focus with equal consideration of the common man's needs to give the Railway Budget a common man's face.
Informing that greater thrust will be given on new lines next year, she said, "New railway line capacity will be raised to 700 kms,"
"We have made railway traveling for poor possible. The Izzat ticket has been a success" she said. "Railways to give 10,000 shelters to shelterless people," she further informed.
"The Railways has a Rs 57,630 crore investment plan for the year and additional Rs 10,000 crore will be raised through tax free bonds," informed the minister.
A proposal to set up new railway lines in difficult and underdeveloped areas has also been made in the Budget.
"We propose to remove all unmanned crossings across the country," said the minister, while appealing people to stop rail roko agitations.
A special package was also proposed for the states that would run trouble free railways. "We will give special projects and two new extra trains for good performance," said Mamata and claimed that rail accident rate has declined from 0.29 per cent in 2009-10 to 0.17 per cent in 2010-11.
Giving thrust on modernisation in this year's budget, Mamata said, "Multi-purpose Go India smart card for passengers travelling long distance will be introduced."
Special provisions were also made for physically challenged people to travel by train.
Ticket booking charges have been reduced by Rs 10 for AC and Rs 5 for non AC class.
Informing that the Railways is passing through a difficult phase, Mamata said, "For implementation of 6th Pay Commission, we are facing a lot of financial problem. Railways has saved Rs 3,700 crore by austerity drive in the previous financial plan."
"Railways earnings are likely to exceed Rs 1 lakh crore," she further said.
While a sports cadre will be setup by Railways to promote sports, 16,000 ex-servicemen are to be inducted in Railways by next financial year.
"Physically handicapped persons will get concession in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains," announced Mamata.
The three new Shatabdi trains will run on Pune-Secunderabad, Jaipur-
Agra and Ludhiana-Delhi routes, said Mamata. New Duronto trains will be introduced on Allahabad-Mumbai, Pune-Ahmedabad, Sealdah-Puri, Madurai-Chennai, Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai Central-New Delhi routes.
The budget comes at a time when the railways are facing financial crunch with its operating ratio inching close to the 100-level mark. The Railway administration, which is coping with gloomy numbers has to deal with task of delivering what Lalu Prasad promised in his stint as the railway minister.
