There wasn’t a separate Rail Budget this year as it was subsumed into the overall Union Budget
This year, there wasn’t any separate Railway Budget, which instead got subsumed within the overall Union Budget.
There was a thought-out plan behind discontinuing the colonial practice prevalent since 1924.
From announcing grand-sounding projects and populist measures, the government this time has moved away from focusing separately on the railways to looking at an integrated end-to-end transport solution at a time when there is increasing competition from air, road and now-emerging inland waterways transports. Industrial users of the railways would stand to gain as managing costs and individual components of logistics can now be managed better.
“This decision brings the railways to the centrestage of the government’s fiscal policy and would facilitate multi-modal transport planning between the railways, highways and inland waterways. The functional autonomy of the railways will, however, continue,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said while announcing the Budget.
“The government is looking at Railways in an integrated fashion, with a concept of multi-modal transport for certain commodities. I guess the idea is to look at things from the overall transportation angle rather than through individual sectors like railways and roadways. Customers like us would be happy if the government takes such a holistic and strategic approach. But we need to see the action on the ground,” said TV Narendran, managing director, Tata Steel.
“We are now in a position to synergise the investments in railways, roads, waterways and civil aviation,” the Budget speech mentioned. The railways, the finance minister said, will implement end-to-end integrated transport solutions for select commodities through partnership with logistics players, who would provide both front- and back-end connectivity. Rolling stocks and practices will be customised to transport perishable goods, especially agricultural products.
But looking at Railways within the bigger transportation theme didn’t reduce the sector’s importance in terms of funds outlay.
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