New Delhi: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday presented Railway Budget for the next fiscal with the promise of a new business model to encourage private investment along with social commitment but without privatisation.
"Our objective is inclusive growth," she told the Lok Sabha adding that her main consideration in this year's Budget was social responsibility rather than mere commercial viability of projects.
"We have set our goals in the Vision 2020 document and we will achieve it," the minister said, referring to the document unveiled in December that has targeted making over 30,000 km of routes into double or multiple lines against 18,000 km today.
"It is a fact that administrative and procedural delays discourage potential investors. We will need to overcome this. I am setting up a special task force for this," she said.
"Special structure will be created for the new business model," she said. "But we will not privatise our railways. Indian Railways will remain with the government."
Speech highlights:
- First rail line in Andaman and Nicobar Islands to connect Port Blair to Diglipur, farthest town of North Andamans.
- Railways to have master plan for North Eastern region.
- Railways to run a special train to Bangladesh on the 150th birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore.
- Net profit of Rs.1,328 crore in 2009-10
- 10 automobile ancillary hubs to be created
- Twenty-two million energy saving CFLs for lighting distributed already
- Policy decision to employ one member of family whose land is requisitioned for railway projects
- North-south, east-west dedicated freight corridors to be created
- Construction of high-speed passenger rail corridors envisaged
- More multi-functional hospitals to be set up
- Educational facilities to be set up for children of 80,000 women families
- Special facilities to be established for gangmen
- Insurance facilities for licensed porters as part of railway's corporate social responsibility
- Centre for railway research to be established with Indian Institutes of Technology and Defence Research and Development Organisation
- Will involve unions in policy making
- Integral Coach Factory Chennai to be further modernised
- New wagon repair shop in Mumbai
- Design, development and testing centre for railway wheels at Bangalore
- Rs 1,302 crore provided for passenger amenities in the 2010-11 Budget against Rs 923 crore last year.
- Allocation for construction of new lines increased from Rs 2848 crore to Rs 4411 crore.
- Gross traffic receipt for 2010-11 pegged at Rs 94,765 crore.
- Freight loading target for 2010-11 fixed at 944 million tonnes, 54 million tonnes more than the current year's revised target.
- Connectivity is key to India's growth.
- Time has come for the business firms to join hands with railways.
At the same time, she also asked the private sector to refrain from what she called "typical negative approach" while dealing with the Indian Railways. "I am sorry to say this, this mindset has to change."
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee were among those in Lok Sabha, presided over by Speaker Meira Kumar.
This was Banerjee's fourth Budget of her career as Railway Minister and the second for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government in its second straight term after being voted back to office in May last year.
According to Banerjee, 117 out of the 122 new trains promised in her last Budget will be flagged off by March 31, within a matter of seven months, which was a commendable effort.
Seeking to give safety issues due consideration, the minister said there were a few cases of unfortunate accidents in the past and said these would be prevented by adopting the highest level of technology and manpower training.
"Within five years, we will have 13,000 out of unmanned level crossings manned - 3,000 this fiscal and 1,000 in the coming fiscal," she said, referring to the high number of accidents at such crossroads.
Mamata came to Parliament dressed in her favourite light yellow-coloured saree and carrying a light blue bag. She also had a white and yellow rose kept in front of her.
The Budget came amidst accusations that promises made by Mamata last year have not been achieved.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been protesting in Parliament over price rise, has promised there will be no disruptions during the Railway Budget presentation.
The Budget came against the backdrop of the share of Indian Railways in the movement of goods, vis a vis truckers, falling from 24.07 percent in 2001-02 to 20.89 percent in 2008-09 and further to 19.32 percent in the first 10 months of this fiscal.
Indian Railways runs the world's second largest network under a single management with a network of 64,099 route km to ferry 18.9 million passengers on 7,000 trains daily from 6,906 stations. It also runs 4,000 freight trains to carry 850 million tonnes of cargo.
(With inputs from CNN-IBN and IANS)
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