With an eye on the forthcoming general elections, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday presented a feel good, populist interim Railway Budget in Parliament, cutting mail and express train fares by 2 per cent and keeping freight rates unchanged.
He said that the Railways has generated a cash of Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) in the last five years and the turnaround made by the Railways was far different from that achieved by private enterprises, Lalu said.
He said: "We have presented budgets without increasing any burden on the common man. Under UPA, the railways has always been for the poor. Profits were registered without hurting the aam aadmi"
He said that the Railways have scaled new heights during the United Progressive Alliance rule. This is UPA's last Rail Budget during its term.
Railways serving the people better now, he added and said that there has been a sharp decrease in the number of accidents in Railways since 2003.
Highlights of Lalu's speech in Parliament:
- There has not been any burden on the common man in the past five years.
- Railways had a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion).
- Railway raised $100mn loan at 4% in Nov 2008.
- The makeover of Railways has been better than that of private sector companies.
- Winning customers hearts is key.
- The railway line between Anantnag and Rajwansher is Kashmir valley will be extended to Qazigund in four months.
- Due to implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, Railways are expected to incur an additional burden of Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) on salaries and Rs 4,500 crore (Rs 45 billion) on pensions.
- Freight loading in the current year has come down due to economic downturn, because of which revenue has fallen. Otherwise it would have touched Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion).
- The best interests of the common man have been kept in mind. Customers can now book railway tickets online.
- Railways expected to show a surplus of Rs 18,847 crore (Rs 188.47 billion) in the next fiscal.
- Dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata to be inaugurated later this month by Sonia Gandhi.
- Feasibility studies are on for running bullet trains between Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad-Pune, Hyderbada-Vijaywada- Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore, Delhi-Patna, Kolkata-Haldia and Ernakulam-Howrah.