Rail Budget 2013: Bansal's tough task to put Railways back on track

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KG Narendranath: New Delhi, Feb 26 2013, 03:59 IST

More than anything else, a single question hangs over today’s rail budget: Will it flag off a course correction for Indian Railways, the troubled monolith?

The railways’ surplus from internal resources has shrunk since 2007-08, leaving little for its Investment Funds and making it excessively dependent on budget support and borrowings to fund its capital needs. The economic slowdown eroded its operating ratio — a mark of efficiency — and drained its capital funds. On top of this, former railway minister Mamata Banerjee refused to hike passenger fares, worsening its finances. The entrenched culture of complacency and political skullduggery has not helped either.

The result: A national transporter which has turned alarmingly unsafe and is losing market share in freight — its last profit centre — as reflected in slowing tonnage growth. The once-mighty railways is now left to milking industries like steel and coal which have few other transport options.

An expert panel led by Sam Pitroda had estimated the cost of modernising the railways at $120 billion. It had proposed a resource pool, combining its internal surplus, private investments, budgetary outlays and borrowings. Banerjee’s Vision 2020 pegged R14 lakh crore, roughly the size of the last Union Budget.

If the railways was efficient, freight loading should have grown at least 20% faster than nominal GDP. But it never did, at least in the past decade. Even when Lalu Prasad — credited for the railways’ “turnaround” during 2005-2008 – headed the ministry, freight loading growth

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Reader's Comments (6)| Post a Comment

RAILWAY BUDGET - DISAPPOINTS to DHARMAPURI DIST. Tamil Nadu

sivabd | 26-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

IT IS ABSOLUTELY DISAPPOINTING. AGAIN.....WE HAVE FAILED TO GET OUR LEGITIMATE, DECADES LONG PENDING SHARE OF DHARMAPURI-MORAPPUR CONNECTIVITY IN THIS RAILWAY BUDGET. WITH CONGRESS RULING IN CENTER WITH d.m.k SUPPORT, WE COULD HAVE DEFINITELY DONE THIS TIME. SURPRISING WHY D.M.K HIGH COMMAND DID NOT HEED TO OUR DISTRICT NEEDS. HAD THE DMK LEADER PITCHED HIGH-VOICE, DHARMAPURI WOULD HAVE CERTAINLY GOT THIS MORAPPUR-DHARMAPURI RAILWAY LINK. THIS IS LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR NEXT LOKSABHA ELECTION RESULT, FOR SURE. ONLY LAST WEEK FOR THE FIRST TIME, TR BAALU MADE A MENTION ABOUT DHARAMPURI-MORAPPUR REQUIREMENT...THAT TOO IN THE LAST ITEM IN THE LIST. THAT ITSELF, WE ALL FELT VERY VERY FRUSTRATING. THE PRIORITY OF DHARMAPURI TO COME OUT OF ITS BACKWARDNESS, IS NOT HIGHLIGHTED THERE. WITHOUT HIGHER COMMAND GETTING ATTENTION OF DHARMAPURI DISTRICT NEED. SEEMS LIKE OUR HNBL DMK MP SHRI THAMARAI SELVAN VOICE IS NOT GETTING DUE RESPECT. DEEPLY FRUSTRATED, HURT AND VERY CONCEREND-Siva@DHARMAPURI

Cause and resolution of Inflation

sandip | 26-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

The railway budget is the perfect example of how to cause inflation in the coming days and later come back and give a resolution to earn votes stating that the govt was able to bring down the inflation rates. The govt never looks at the cost of operation of the railway department. It never realizes that it can bring down operation cost and increase profitability, rather than axing people. What about ticketing sharks? If booking an e ticket is getting expensive by the day, than what is the point in having such a service. On second thought I was under the impression that it reduces lot of man hrs which railway ideally has to pay a salary for manning the reservation counters. Cost of installing a server and networking is a one time cost and I'm sure that maintenance of the said server certainly does not exceed the cost of manning reservation counters, else banks would have gotten away with such technology long ago.

Fe Comment

L N Bhola | 26-Feb-2013Reply | Forward

Paralysis by Analysis. Lau Prasad Yadav was a Good Railway Minister no doubt. Bansal shows, he is sophisticated, but-his delivery Module is 'way far behind Lay Prasad Yadav'! For example, look at the Logic, he puts, Railways collects a revenue of Rs,7500 Crore from Odisha region, and Railway is haggling with Odisha Govt request to saction even below 500 core. So it proves he is more intelligent than laluji, but-has a useless, mindless delivery mechanism.