The Railway Minister has announced that there is an urgency to attract FDI in Railway projects.
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.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
The national transporter is also mulling a hike in passenger fares in the Rail Budget next year to tide over the loss in passenger sector
The next Rail Budget to be presented early next year could contain a proposal for raising fares to pass on the burden of rising power cost to passengers.
Train running information system will be installed at rail premises to facilitate dissemination of information about trains on real time basis.
To cover most of the gap, the road ministry plans to raise $7 billion.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is set to face a decline of Rs 300 million ( Rs 30 crore) in revenues from sale of online rail tickets in the coming financial year as a result of the reduction in service charge announced in the Rail Budget last month.
Also on the anvil is abolition of distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure and replacing it with capital and revenue expenditure
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announced introduction of 19 new train services, extension of three and increase in frequency of five trains acceding to demands of MPs.
"This budget is most directionless budget presented by the Union railway minister Lalu Prasad...it's nothing but jugglery of words," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaj Hussain said. "Railway minister should also present an outcome and performance budget after each railway budget so that people could know which of promises made during his rail budgets were actually implemented," party general secretary Ananth Kumar said.
The change in leadership at the railway ministry comes at a time when the national transporter is grappling with low passenger earnings even as it is trying to increase freight loading and open up its doors to private investment. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge from Piyush Goyal who got the railway portfolio in 2017 after Prime Minister Narendra Modii dropped Suresh Prabhu from the Union Cabinet. Completing freight corridors, negotiating land for the bullet train, and speeding up monetisation plans would be some of the major focus areas for Vaishnaw.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu faces a stiff dilemma on whether to raise fares and freight rates in his second Rail Budget.
The clarification comes in wake of media reports that Finance Ministry is contemplating to merge the Railway and General budgets and change the financial year.
Opposition parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India, on Wednesday slammed the Rail Budget terming it a mockery while the Congress said the budget is futuristic and reflects the concerns of the 'aam admi'.
"In the proud history of independent India, it is for the first time that the returns on the capital investment in the Railways will reach 21 per cent," the railway minister announced as he presented his 5th Rail Budget.
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The introduction of fuel adjustment component in passenger fares will merely add Rs 450 crore.
The Railway Budget will be presented on February 25 while the Union Budget will be presented on February 29.
The projects include commissioning of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling of existing tracks in certain busy stretches.
'We carry 6.5 billion passengers every year. We have crossed seven billion this year, and are targeting 10 billion by 2030.'
As part of the housekeeping scheme, there will be attendants in each coach to address problems related to hygiene like maintaining clean toilets and keeping coaches spick-and-span.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presented the Railway Budget at the Parliament on Thursday.
Bansal said he would also pursue for the approval of projects identified as being of national importance, including the Bilaspur-Manali-Leh, Jammu-Poonch via Akhnoor, Tanakpur-Bageshwar and Parsuramkund-Rupai.
Arguably one of the toughest engineering challenges in hand, the Indian Railways plans to complete the Chenab bridge in Jammu and Kashmir by 2016, making it the world's highest rail bridge.
Announcing the resignation of Dinesh Trivedi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he regretted the departure of the railway minister who had presented a budget which promised the "vision" outlined by his predecessor Mamata Banerjee.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday presented the Railway Budget.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is all set to present his second Railway Budget on February 25.
Though Sukhu has been putting up a brave face and there appears to be no immediate threat to his government, the BJP is looking to bring down his dispensation with bypoll wins amid a view that it may draw more legislators of the ruling party into its fold.
The aim is to reduce working expense by about 15 per cent.
Railways internal resources generation has been reduced due to various factors, including cost escalation and pay commission load.
While the corporate sector has benefited from massive capital expenditure, leading to sky-rocketing stock prices, investors would do well to keep an eye on the macroeconomic picture and government finances, not just corporate profits, for signs of trouble, alerts Debashis Basu.
In his interim Railway Budget for 2009-10, Lalu announced the extension of 2187/2188 Jabalpur-Mumbai-Jabalpur biweekly Garib Rath Express to Allahabad. The trouble, however, is that the Jabalpur-Mumbai-Jabalpur Garib Rath does not exist!
Expressing commitment to augment the country's infrastructure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday proposed to significantly enhance capital expenditure to Rs 5.54 lakh crore in the next fiscal, besides creating institutional structures and giving a big thrust to monetizing assets to achieve the goals of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Sitharaman said NIP, that was launched in December 2019 with 6,835 projects, has now been expanded to 7,400 projects and around 217 projects worth Rs 1.10 lakh crore under some key infrastructure ministries have been completed. "For 2021-22, I propose a sharp increase in capital expenditure and thus have provided Rs 5.54 lakh crores which is 34.5% more than the BE of 2020-21," the finance minister said.
Railways Minister Sadananda Gowda will present his maiden Rail Budget on July 8 in Parliament.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor were also present with the PM as he interacted with the students inside the train.
Total subsidy bill could come down to around Rs 2 trillion.
The railway minister said the target of 700 km of new lines in the current year (2012-13) had to be scaled down to 470 km due to inadequate resources.
'On the tax front, most of the Budget proposals are sensible'.
Though there was no fare hike proposal in the Rail Budget this time, passengers will have to cough up more for travelling on new trains with added facilities in the coming days.
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