The Hindu : Fares, freight untouched, 18 new trains proposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 31, 2004

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Fares, freight untouched, 18 new trains proposed

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 30. The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, today presented the interim railway budget for 2004-05, which contains people-friendly proposals with an eye on the coming general elections. Eighteen non-stop express trains linking virtually all the States with the national capital and an additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crores for projects to connect remote and socially backward areas have been proposed.

As expected, no change has been proposed in passenger fares and freight rates.

Mr. Kumar placed for approval before Parliament the interim budget along with a `vote-on-account' seeking authorisation for an expenditure of over Rs. 26,000 crores in the first four months of the next financial year. He suggested a plan outlay of Rs. 13,425 crores for the next fiscal.

The outlay consists of a budgetary support of Rs. 4,544 crores, a Special Railway Safety Fund of Rs. 2,795 crores, Rs. 401 crores from the Central Road Fund, internal resources of Rs. 2,635 crores and market borrowings of Rs. 3,050 crores. It also includes an outlay of Rs. 717 crores for the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd.

The new series of 18 fast trains, called Sampark Kranti Express, will have a non-stop run, dedicated staff and public address systems. "It will have Rajdhani type features," Mr. Kumar told presspersons after presenting the budget. The first train will start its run on February 8 on a tri-weekly basis from Bangalore to Delhi. It will run daily from October 2.

Delhi would be connected by these trains to Guwahati, Secunderabad, Durg, Samastipur, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Jabalpur, Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur, Madurai, Chitrakoot, Kathgodam, Sealdah, Madgaon and Udhampur. Also, the Jammu-Udhampur line would be commissioned on March 25.

The Minister placed emphasis on improving comforts for the rail users. The `tatkal' scheme, currently available on selected trains and primarily in the sleeper class, is proposed to be extended to all trains and for the sleeper, chair car, AC-3 tier and AC-2 tier classes. The unutilised quota under the scheme would be made available to the waitlisted passengers.

On the lines of incentives given by airlines to frequent flyers, the Railways proposes to introduce a scheme for the issue of free tickets for frequent travellers of the Rajdhani, the Shatabdi and the Jan Shatabdi trains. The entitlement for complementary passes would depend on the journeys made in a year.

In the event of a delay of more than 30 minutes in the departure of these trains, the passengers, who so desire, will be informed by SMS on their mobile phones. This would be done first on an experimental basis for trains originating from Delhi.

A new beginning has been proposed through the introduction of e-ticketing. A pilot project will be started on select Shatabdi Express trains to enable passengers to reserve their seats through the Internet and occupy them on the basis of a computer-generated slip. The Unreserved Ticketing System is proposed to be extended to more stations.

The additional outlay of Rs. 20,000 crores would be utilised for implementing the `Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana.' Under the scheme, projects of socio-economic importance that were unlikely to be taken up in the next five years would now be implemented, Mr. Kumar said, referring to the over 230 pending projects estimated at Rs. 43,000 crores.

The Railway Protection Force will take up the additional responsibility of escorting trains, providing security in passenger areas and investigating minor offences. The amendments made in the law for the purpose would become operational on July 1. At present, the Government Reserve Police has jurisdiction in the matter. It will now be able to concentrate on more serious offences.

On the performance front, he conceded that earnings had not matched the expectations. The revised estimates indicated a shortfall of Rs. 890 crores. Of this, second class passenger earnings were short of budgetary expectations by Rs. 249 crores and goods earnings by Rs. 700 crores, which indicated the need for revision of fares and rates. Accordingly, gross traffic receipts have been revised downwards by an equal amount.

The Railways reduced its working expenses by nearly Rs. 1,500 crores. The pension payout was also less by about Rs. 300 crores. These savings enabled it to pay a deferred dividend of Rs. 300 crores; it also promised payment of another Rs. 300 crores dividend deferred during Mamta Banerjee's tenure.

With these changes, the Railways earned a surplus of Rs. 880 crores, which is being appropriated to the Railway Development Fund and the Special Railway Safety Fund.

Mr. Kumar — and later the Chairman of the Railway Board, R.K. Singh — claimed that the load and traffic targets would be realised as in the previous year. In the current year, the Railways is expected to surpass the freight loading target of 5.15 million tonnes.

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