Tough times call for tough actions. This is what Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is seeking to do as he restructures, re-organises and rejuvenates Indian Railways to effectively face the current challenging times.

Despite a tough financial position, Prabhu has preferred to spare the passengers from any hike in fares, while at the same time promising several amenities for both reserved as well as unreserved travellers.

Goodies

The goodies offered for passengers include better food quality, extension of e-catering to all stations, optional travel insurance for rail customers, besides expanding the roll out of WiFi facilities.

Building on the momentum of his last year’s budget speech, Prabhu today in his second budget speech outlined a blueprint for transforming Railways – the fourth largest in the world – into a nimble and service-oriented transporter.

Slow economy

His strategies encompass among other things plans to regain lost freight businesses, which due to slow economy cast a shadow on the entire Railway finances. Nearly two-third of Railways’ total income is from freight business.

Prabhu has promised a complete review of the tariff policy to help regain its lost glory in the freight business. On the anvil is an expansion of the freight basket given that currently 10 commodities account for 88 per cent of the revenues.

His action plan to recapture traffic include wooing specific sectors such as automobile, devising a national rail plan in consultation with stakeholders and embark on an organisational restructuring of the Railway board along business lines.

Prabhu also said that he intends to move forward on the railway regulatory authority and hopes to finalise the draft Bill for this purpose in the coming days.

He also announced that Railways will most likely achieve an operating ratio of 90 per cent this year, while setting a target of 92 per cent for next year. He also said cost optimisation will be increased manifold while Railways will also look at monetisation of several non-core areas.

Superfast trains

PTI reports : The Railway Budget announced introduction of three new superfast trains.

The three new superfast trains announced by him include ’Humsafar’ which will be a fully air—conditioned 3AC service with option of meals. ‘Tejas’ will showcase the future of train travel in India with speeds up to 130 km per hour with onboard services such as entertainment, local cuisine and wifi.

The two trains will ensure cost recovery through tariff and non-tariff measures while ‘Uday’ will be an overnight double—decker along with ‘Utkrishit’ double—decker air—conditioned yatri express on the busiest routes.

For improving quality of travel for unreserved passenger, a superfast ‘Antyodya’ express service would be introduced.

'Deen Dayalu’ unreserved coaches with potable water and higher number of mobile charging points would also be introduced.

Rail Development Authority

He also announced setting up of a Rail Development Authority to enable fair pricing of services, promote competition, protect customer interest and determine efficiency standards. The draft Bill in this regard will be ready after holding extensive stakeholder consultations.

Budget estimates

Outlining the Budget estimates for the coming year, the Minister put the plan size at Rs 1.21 lakh crore.

The focus will be on capital expenditure with a mix of various sources of funding in order to ensure the projects are given assured funding.

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