Passenger-friendly Railway Budget
by Pankaj Yadav/Vikram Vishal

     New Delhi: Presenting his third Union Rail Budget, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav opted to take the passenger- friendly track on Friday to boost his pro-poor image. Announcing the Budget for 2006-07 in the Lok Sabha, Lalu said that there would be no increase in passenger and freight fares, and added that fares for AC first and second classes would be reduced by 18 and 10 per cent respectively.

     The Railway Minister also said that the passenger tariff structure would be rationalised to make the fares of AC first class and AC second class 11.5 times and 6.5 times of the second class fares. Besides this, he also announced a fully air-conditioned train 'Garib Rath' (Poor's chariot), to be run on a pilot basis having four pairs of services with fares being about 25 percent less than the present AC-III tier fares. A list of 55 new trains, out which 27 will be weekly, five bi- weekly, five tri-weekly and 14 daily was also announced. To give relief to the passengers standing in long queues at booking counters, Lalu proposed a strategy to eliminate the problem by reducing charges of e-tickets, installing 800 Automatic Ticket Vending machines and introducing 'Gramin ticket booking services'. On the security front, the Minister said that the Railway Protection Force (RPF) would be modernised to strengthen passenger security in trains, adding that "special arrangements" would be made for women. "Access control and security at about 600 stations will be provided through RPF," he said.

     Four popular trains will be provided with world-class passenger amenities and interiors and while new technology LHB passenger coaches will be used in Patna and Sealdah Rajdhani trains, he said. Asserting that there would be no across-the-board increase in the freight rates, he said that the rationalisation of goods traffic would continue further. The number of commodities groups would be reduced from 80 to 28. With lowering of the highest class to 220, and freight rates of diesel and petrol would be less by eight per cent, he said. Over the next three years, the highest class to be lowered below 200 and rates for the highest classification are proposed to be made less than double that of the lowest classification (except rates of some light commodities). The Minister further announced new line of over 550 kms in the sections of Bikramganj-Sasaram, Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi, Keojhar- Daitari, Sakri-Biraul, Manu-Agartala, Hathua-Bathua Bazar, Udhampur-Katra, Qazignd-Badgam and Karimnagar-Jagityal. He went on to add that the new line projects of Ara-Sasaram, Muzaffarpur-Sitarmarhi, Daitari-Banaspani and Kumarghat-Agartala would be completed after the completion of the former sections.

Highlights of Railway Budget 2006-07

      New Delhi: Railway Minister Lalu Yadav today announced the Railway Budget for the fiscal year 2006-07. Following are the highlights of the Railway Budget: Highlights of the Rail Budget: 1. No increase in passenger and freight fare 2. 1st class AC fare to be cut by 18 per cent 3. 2nd AC fares down by 10 per cent 4. 50 per cent concession for farmers in sleeper class 5. 50 per cent concession to handicapped people 6. 50 per cent concession to those travelling for treatment 7. 55 new trains by next fiscal (They include 27 weekly trains, 5 bi-weekly trains 5 tri-weekly trains and 14 daily trains) 8. Private container trains from March 21 9. Diesel/Petrol freight rates down by 8 per cent 10. Gharib Rath on Pilot basis for 4 trains 11. Gharib Rath will be fully airconditioned 12. Gharib Rath fare will be 25 per cent less than AC 3 tier 13. Dedicated freight corridor on western and eastern routes 14. Dedicated frieght corridor to cost Rs 22,000 crore 15. Special security arrangement for women on trains 16. Four popular trains to have world-class amenities and interiors 17. E-tickets charges to be reduced 18. New aluminium and stainless steel wagons 19. 550 kms of new lines in 8 sections 20. Up to 30 per cent fare discount during non-peak season 21. 20 per cent freight discount in peak season on incremental freight 22. 200 automatic ticket vending machines in Mumbai suburb 23. Jan Sadharan ticket book scheme, pre-paid UTF counters to unemployed youth 24. Grameen ticket booking service: Roadside station agencies to sell railway ticket 25. Railway to raise output of electronic locomotives by 20 per cent 26. Public-private partnership to boost Railway infrastructure 27. RPF modernised to strengthen passenger security in trains 28. RPF escort parties for over-1, 000 passengers trains everyday 29. Steps to shrink queues at booking counters.

List of new trains

     New Delhi: Railway Minister Lalu Yadav today announced a list of 55 trains that would be operational from the next fiscal. Here are some of the train likely to be introduced: 1. Valsad-Udhna (Surat)-Chhapra-Sonpur Shramik Express, 2. Ahmedabad-Patna-Azimabad Express, 3. Muzaffarpur-Kolkata (Chitpur) Tirhut Express, 4. Kishanganj Garib Nawaj Express, 5. Yeshwantpur Garib Nawaj Express, 6. Ranch Garib Nawaj Express, 7. Sonpur-Chhapra-Jammu Twai Mour Dhwaj Express, 8. Delhi-Patna Garib Rath (AC), 9. Delhi-Mumbai Garib Rath (AC), 10. Delhi-Chennai Garib Rath (AC), 11. Bangalore-Darbhanga Express Via Chennai, Patna 12. Delhi (New Azadpur)-Saharsa Poorbiya Express via LKO, 13. Valsad-Udhna (Surat)-Kanpur Udyogkarmi Express, 14. Durg-Gorakhpur Express via Faizabad, 15. Chennai-Tiruvananthapuram Express, 16. Chennai-Egmore-Nagercoil Express, 17. Chennai-Coimbatore Express, 18. Bhubaneswar-Pondichery Express, 19. Howrah-Mumbai Express

Allies, Opposition criticise Lalu's Rail Budget

     New Delhi: Lalu's third consecutive Rail Budget is earning brickbats from the opposition and allies alike. While the opposition BJP has termed it as 'disappointing', the Left parties, an important outside ally of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government have termed it as a 'biased' one. VK Malhotra, spokesman of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) today dubbed the rail budget as one, which is very disappointing since it has given the much concerned rail safety a miss. He also criticised the minister for his decision to reduce the tariffs in the e-ticketing prices. Perverse and completely off the track was the attribute given by the senior BJP leader Anath Kumar to Lalu's budget which has been lauded by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Peeved by the absence of any major announcement in the Left's stronghold states of West Bengal and Kerala that is going for the state assembly elections this year, the Left parties have decided to oppose the budget outside and inside the Parliament. The dedicated East-West freight corridor has earned the ire from the Left parties since the minister today proposed it to extend from Ludhiana to Somnagar in Bihar against the earlier announcement of the Prime Minister of a Delhi- Kolkata one. However, in an interview to CNN-IBN, Lalu said that since the plan of laying a new rail line dedicated to only carrying freight is done out with the money from its reserves and borrowing from the market so they are doing in a phase by phase manner. The Left along with the Samajwadi Party who also support the UPA government from outside, criticised saying the budget did not show a pan India plan as the SP leader Mohan Singh quipped: " Yadav's rail map has only three centres -- Patna, Chhappra and Chennai". He also added that it was ironic to see the Railway Minister thanking UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and at the same time 'neglecting' her home state of Uttar Pradesh. Normally, not seen the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders to sung in tune with Samajwadis in criticising the budget as the one that has kept UP out of the loop.

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