Mamata tries to please all but Lalu

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee played to a full gallery on Friday, with her 2009-10 budget scattering largesse all around. While passenger fares and freight rates have been kept unchanged despite fuel price increases, super-low ticket rates have been announced for youth, madrassa students and unorganised labour. New projects and special trains have been unveiled for most states, with West Bengal being the prime recipient of benevolence.

The Santa Claus act was, however, overshadowed by a few lines at the end of her speech which seemed to debunk the performance credentials of her predecessor, Lalu Prasad. Banerjee said Prasad had set “unrealistically high” freight targets for this year. She also promised a “white paper” on the railways’ performance over the last five years — statements that riled Lalu enough to organise a press conference to denounce her statements. “I am not afraid of any white paper. We have been audited by the comptroller and auditor general, and the railways committee of Parliament. IIM, Ahmedabad, and Harvard have studied the (railways) turnaround,” he said.
Though both Banerjee and Lalu subsequently denied any political intent behind her statement, the subtle shift in priorities between her and her predecessor was apparent. In contrast to Lalu Prasad’s focus on fare stability and improving the efficiency of the railways, Banerjee announced two strategic shifts. 
 
First, she said, the “old mindset of economic viability should be substituted by social viability.” This means, future railways projects may be cleared on social grounds Second, there is a shift in emphasis from bottomline performance to serving the customer with improved passenger amenities.

In keeping with this, Banerjee announced a plan to upgrade 50 railway stations to world class (including Mumbai’s Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus), improved facilities for another 375 stations, provision of “Janata khana” keeping local tastes in mind, mobile ticket vending vans, facilities to buy unreserved tickets from 5,000 post offices, improved security in vulnerable stations, air-conditioned double-decker trains for inter-city travel and SMS updates for wait-listed passengers.

Banerjee, who was presenting her third railway budget - the other two happened when she was minister in the NDA government - went one up on Lalu Prasad’s muted populism. If Lalu was known for introducing a Garib Rath, AC trains with fares at a 25% discount, Banerjee made her mark by announcing non-stop trains on 12 routes (Duronto), a revision in Tatkal (quick booking) norms, special low-cost trains for youth (Yuva, with tickets priced between Rs 299-399), and `only ladies’ suburban trains in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata (Mumbai already has them).

A new concession scheme called Izzat has been announced for people with monthly incomes up to Rs 1,500 in the unorganised sector. For daily travel up to 100 km, they will have to shell out only Rs 25 a month. “I wish to present the gift of travel with dignity to even the poorest of the poor,” the minister pointed out.   The rail budget made no mention of Lalu’s trademark Garib Rath.

According to Railway Board chairman SS Khurana, the ministry is aiming to improve the level of punctuality of trains as well. From the current 75-80% punctuality, this year the goal is raise it to 85%.
Also significant was the announcement of posting a doctor on long-distance trains. “We are exploring the possibility…”, Mamata said in her budget speech. Besides, there will be ambulance services for passengers in Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar to start with.

Field trials are being conducted for introducing environment-friendly green toilets and vacuum toilets like those used in aircraft. On safety, there are plans for timely track renewals, modernisation of signals, and use of digital ultrasonic flaw detecting machines. Plus, anti-collision devices are being installed in more trains across the country.

The Indian Railways has also chalked out a plan to launch super fast parcel express trains on the Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Howrah (Kolkata) routes. To prevent wastage of fruit and vegetables, there would be special trains to carry perishable products. Banerjee called the initiative `the second green revolution’.

The dedicated freight corridors on the western and eastern routes have been christened “Diamond Rail Corridors”. Pre-feasibility studies on other routes are on. “I visualise an Eastern Industrial Corridor developing alongside the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor, similar to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor,” Banerjee said.

The minister also sought to take advantage of the railways’ vast property holdings. She said land along the new freight corridor would be put to productive use. To raise funds, the railways will resume the issuance of tax-free bonds.