All eyes on Bansal for tomorrow's Rail Budget

All eyes on Bansal for tomorrow's Rail Budget

  All eyes will be on Railway

Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal tomorrow on whether he yields to

pressure of hiking passenger fares yet again or looks at other

measures to mobilise resources to offset the burden of the

recent diesel price hike.

          Bansal had on January 22 hiked passenger fares across-the-

board after the Railways faced a loss of about Rs 25,000 crore

in the passenger segment.

          Railways had aimed to mop up an additional revenue of Rs

6,600 crore but the fuel hike had wiped out Rs 3,300 crore,

Bansal had said.

            The Rail Minister held several round of discussions with

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram

and the Planning Commission in connection with the Rail

Budget. He is also understood have discussed the possibility

of fare hike with Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

            However, sources said a section of the Congress is not

inclined towards effecting another round of fare hike as

general elections are not far away.

            Bansal is all set to announce a slew of passenger-friendly

measures such as improvement in catering service, maintaining

cleanliness at rail premises, introducing Braille stickers in

coaches for visually-challenged passengers and development of

stations in his maiden Rail Budget.

          While there are possibilities of minor tinkering in

freight rates despite resistance from the industry due to the

slow economy growth, there will be some announcements of

freight schemes to attract more loadings in the next fiscal

2013-14.

          With Bansal heading Rail Bhavan and the key ministry back

with the Congress party after almost one-and-a-half decade,

speculation is rife about announcement of 100 new trains

including AC double deckers, extension and increase of some

popular passenger services.

            Though the Congress is opposing the Trinamool government

in Bengal, MoS Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury might have his

say with likely provisions for new trains including Berhampur-

Sealdah passenger, a direct train for New Jalpaiguri from the

capital and pantry cars for Bengal-bound trains.