The Railway Budget for 2016-17 is directed towards enhancing passenger amenities from availability of Wi-Fi to GPS-based digital display and promise of better food and services. The only problem is that the budget does not spell out how this will be achieved.
The performance of the Railways has not kept pace with what has been planned. The total earnings – freight and passengers – have dropped dismally. We also have the burden of the 7th Pay Commission outgo of Rs.32,000 crore.
In such a scenario, the Minister for Railways has forecast a 10 per cent year-on-year increase in both passenger and freight revenues at Rs.1.85 lakh crore. But how will he raise money with an operating ratio of 92 per cent is the main question.
I believe this was the right time to raise the passenger fares. The government cannot go on subsidising the fares.
The operational cost needs to be recovered and it should be done in a phased manner, year by year.
With fares which are already on the lower side, a hike in fares would have helped the Railways.
The budget, however, covers all aspects of the Railways, which is a good thing.
National plan welcome
What I really like is the idea of the National Rail Plan (NRP 2030) for providing integrated rail-road intermodal transport planning. This has been talked about for a long time. It’s a very good step that aims to integrate the railway network with other modes of transport.
Additionally, Suresh Prabhu is the first Minister who has spoken about accountability. He has presented what he promised last year and what he has actually achieved.
This is something I personally feel is a very good step vis-a-vis others who promise a lot of things with no accountability of implementation.
Further, he talks about periodic audits by a third party for ensuring better quality of services, which again is a huge positive. For example, he proposes putting up GPS devices, but what if they stop working after 5 days? Audit is a very good step.
While a lot of ministers earlier have talked about reorganising the Railway Board but Mr Prabhu is the first one to spell out how it is to be done.
Mr.Prabhu does identify main issues that are needed to be looked at, but the budget needs to have numbers.
(The writer is former chairman of the Railway Board)
