Railway Budget: Trivedi bites bullet, raises fares by 2-30 p/km

1:38 pm: Railway Minister follows up fare hike with some bad poetry. And presents 820 annexures and the Railway Budget to the speaker of the house.

1:37 pm: Trivedi says, “I propose to rationalise the fares to cause minimum impact on common man. Am asking for extra 2 paise per km for suburban and second class, Mail and express train by 3 paise per km, airconditioned 3 tier by 10 paise per km, airconditioned 2-tier by 20 paise per km and airconditioned 3-tier by 30 paise per km.”

1:31 pm: Concessions granted to students, farmers and other groups is valued at Rs 800 crore per year and will not be touched. Fuel costs and inflation are up and I have been advised a steep rise in fares. However, there will be no steep increase in fares, Trivedi says.

1:30 pm: Criticism over railway finances unwarranted. Budgetary support not at levels required, says Trivedi.

**1:24 pm:**Railways didn’t fail to pay dividend, Trivedi says. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee doesn’t look to happy after hearing about financial condition of railways. Passengers expected to increase by 5 percent and earnings thanks to  them are expected to rise. Freight earnings also to rise.

1:21 pm : Television feed is back in time for Railway Minister to announce that Railways going though a difficult phase.

1:20 pm: New passenger services- 75 new express trains, 21 passenger trains. Minister says he is willing to talk all day to talk about the 800 new projects planned under budget when MPs raise ruckus over him not announcing which trains are planned. And Lok Sabha television feed crashes after this announcement.

1:15 pm: Toilets could be better on Railways soon. Minister says Rs 350 crore to be spent on e-toilets and 2500 coaches to be fitted with bio toilets to improve sanitary conditions. Can we say goodbye to stinking tracks and train toilets?

1:10 pm: High speed ‘bullet’ trains make a re-appearance in this year’s budget. Trains  to operate at 350 km/hr are being studied. Six studies carried out so far and one more to be done this year. Among the possible lines include one between Delhi- Ajmer and one between Ahmedabad to Pune via Mumbai. No hope for it though with the Railway Minister saying that the project is highly capital intensive and needs significant government funding which is still to be fixed.

1:05 pm: Catering- propose reputed agencies be engaged through global tenders. A benchmark shall be set. Pilot project on few premium trains.

1: 00 pm: Railways to test new innovation to  provide passengers with wait listed tickets an accomodation on alternate trains. Rs 1,100 crore to improve passenger amenities like escalators at stations, sms/ email for e-ticket if trains are late, book-a-meal before train journey, railway meals and housekeeping.

12:57 pm:  To improve relations with neighbouring countries a new train connecting Agartala with Bangladesh to improve bilateral ties and improve connectivity in North East.

**12:50 pm :**Mumbai’s harbour line to get 12 coach rakes after study is completed. A new railway line from Seawood area to Uran to link the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust could be built after a feasibility study. Studies also to be done on an elevated rail corridors in Mumbai which will be executed under the public private partnership model. Study also to be carried out on premium airconditioned train in Mumbai.

12: 47 pm: Mumbai’s railways finds mention. Conversion of electrical system to be completed for suburban railways by 2012-13 and modern rakes introduced. Says peak hour crowding has reduced.

12:45 pm: MPs now very vocal about the Railway Minister not specifying which specific projects he will be undertaking and asking them to refer to the annexures of the budget.

12: 42 pm : Funding constraints for projects seem to be a constant theme that figures throughout the Railway Budget. Railway Minister seems to be leaving a lot for the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to do in his budget.

12: 40 pm: New railway lines in underdeveloped parts of India like tribal areas. 725 km of new line in this year, no change from last year.

12:35 pm: Faster trains thanks to new locomotives. They will travel at 160 km/hr and journey time of Shatabdi Express from Kolkata to Delhi could be reduced to 14 hours instead of 17 hours, Trivedi says.

12:28 pm: Highest ever allocation of over Rs 2,000 crore over 2012-13 to modernise signalling and telecommunications. Railways to get next generation locomotives to improve freight and passenger transport.

12: 20 pm : A sum of Rs 14 lakh crore needed by Railways and I have a Himalayan task of running railways, Trivedi says. Rabindranath Tagore inspires the Minister to bring about a ‘generational’ change in the railways.

**12:15 pm :**Budget to focus on safety, consolidation, decongestion and adding capacity, modernization and bringing down the operating ratio, Trivedi says.

12:12 pm: Many pending projects are a matter of concern and without budgetary support from central government they cannot be completed, the Minister says.

12:10 pm : Independent railway safety authority to be set up in line with recommendations made by Anil Kakodkar committee that reviewed railway safety.

12:06 pm: Trivedi says he wants to have zero tolerance for deaths on tracks and said he is still haunted by sights he witnessed at an accident site.

12: 05 pm: Dinesh Trivedi thanks the PM, opposition, Sonia Gandhi, Trinamool Congress, Mamata Banerjee and maa, mati, manush. A long list that.

12:03 pm : Dinesh Trivedi begins reading his maiden railway budget.

11:45 am : Former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav says he has “no hope” from this year’s Railway Budget.

11:28 am : Video of the Railway Minister before he entered Parliament to present the budget later in the day. Trivedi said the budget is going to be very good especially for the common man and said the railway budget is “going to be good”.

10:55 amAnd it’s that time of the year again. Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi is all set to deliver his maiden Railway Budget in which he is expected to keep fares static but still raise money to fund modernisation and safety plans.

Among the announcements we could see include: a safety cess instead of a hike in fares, funds for a dedicated freight corridor, creation of high-speed train networks and new trains.

Speaking to reporters before he left for Parliament Trivedi said,“The Indian Railways should be solid as gold, then only the GDP will grow.”

Let’s see what he plans to do to ensure it happens.