Rail Budget 2014: NEW DELHI: The Modi government's railway budget broke new ground by
proposing the opening up of the system to overseas investors and
offering a grand vision of what India's train system could look like in
the future but critics attacked the effort, saying there was a sorry
lack of detail in the accompanying numbers.
Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda promised bullet trains,
dedicated freight corridors, a diamond quadrilateral high-speed rail
network, enhanced passenger amenities and augmented cargocarrying
capacity in his budget for the year ended March 2015.
While he
spelt out some of the measures for resource mobilisation including
leveraging the surplus of railway public sector units, Gowda didn't give
a timetable or explain the mechanism via which the organisation would
generate funds through FDI and public-private partnerships (PPPs).
Also, the areas open
for overseas investment could be restricted to infrastructure due to
home ministry's concerns. The budget did not propose any freight or
passenger fare increases as these had been made last month. These are
expected to net an additional.`8,000 crore this fiscal year.
TC, BJP MPs Almost Come to Blows
The minister said periodic adjustments in fares will be made to compensate for higher fuel costs. The stock markets
didn't appear to be impressed and even political allies such as Shiv
Sena grumbled about Gowda's efforts. Most of the political ire was
however over the lack of trains to a particular state or region.
Members of Trinamool Congress
and BJP almost came to blows in Parliament over accusations that there
was nothing in the rail budget for West Bengal. TMC members also
demanded a rollback of fare hikes that had been announced ahead of the
rail budget.
Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar later said
there were no investment proposals by overseas or domestic investors on
the table, pointing out that the budget was suggesting this for the
first time. To be sure, the railways is not even among the sectors
cleared by the Cabinet to receive FDI, along with the Department of
Atomic Energy.
"The budget is a vision document", which
suggests that India could aspire to airport-like stations and trains
that run in developed countries, Kumar said. "It all depends upon the
interest shown by investors," he said in the customary post-rail budget
press conference. There can be no deadline for such an exercise, said VK
Gupta, railway board member, engineering. "The exercise of identifying
stations will start after studying technical feasibility and interest of
private players," he said.
Kumar said the railways was not
averse to allowing 100% FDI in an exclusive high-speed train corridor. A
foreign investor could acquire land, lay dedicated tracks and run
high-speed trains independently but the railways would retain the right
of fixing fares and granting safety licences for operations, he said.
Deteriorating
finances are a recurrent theme of railway budgets. The operating ratio,
a measure of efficiency, is expected at 92.5% this fiscal, only
marginally better than 93.5% in FY14 as its social burden has risen. The
loss from the passenger business rose to 23 paise per passenger km in
FY13 from 10 paise in FY01.
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
Deteriorating
finances are a recurrent theme of railway budgets. The operating ratio,
a measure of efficiency, is expected at 92.5% this fiscal, only
marginally better than 93.5% in FY14 as its social burden has risen. The
loss from the passenger business rose to 23 paise per passenger km in
FY13 from 10 paise in FY01.
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/38038792.cms?curpg=2&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/38038792.cms?curpg=2&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Deteriorating
finances are a recurrent theme of railway budgets. The operating ratio,
a measure of efficiency, is expected at 92.5% this fiscal, only
marginally better than 93.5% in FY14 as its social burden has risen. The
loss from the passenger business rose to 23 paise per passenger km in
FY13 from 10 paise in FY01.
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
Meanwhile, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed over the next 10 years to complete existing jects. The enormity of the challenge that the government faces in bringing its vision to ..
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