Amid increasing concern over the financial status and rising operating cost, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to table a white paper on the actual condition of the PSU on December 21, the last day of the winter session of Parliament.
She will also present ‘Vision 2010’ document, spelling out railways various plans of action for the coming decades.
The tabling of the white paper comes at a time when the PSU behemoth is being confronted with a steady rise in operating cost, which according to senior railway officials has crossed over 100 per cent today, meaning the Ministry is spending more than it is earning.
Implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission is being attributed for the failing financial status of the PSU.
Ms. Banerjee in her budget speech had promised to come out with a white paper in the face of growing clamour from the Opposition who cast doubt over her predecessor Lalu Prasad’s claim of turning around the railway’s fortune with a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore in his tenure.
The white paper is expected to throw light on the actual financial position of railways and how the organisation plans to fund various projects in the coming decades.
Sources have already indicated “that the white paper will have certain basic data on railways’ operational and financial condition.”
