Mamata's magic wand at play in Rly budget
* Anantnag-Qazigund rail-link to be operational by August end
Iftikhar Gilani
NEW DELHI, July 3: Mamata's magic wand was on display in the railway budget that she carried in her typical "Jhola" (cloth sling bag) to present to the Lok Sabha on Friday, pulling out a slew of sops and 111 trains, with no hike in rail fare or freight.
The plethora of measures that the 54-year old Mamata Bannerjee unfolded in her 80-minute speech overshadowed the past five years of dramatics by her predecessor Lalu Prasad who tried to intervene just once and talked of ending the year with a cash surplus before dividend of Rs 14,201 crores, just a shade lower than he ending with Rs 17,400 crores.
JAMMU AND KASHMIR: She announced a new tri-weekly non-stop, point-to-point, train connecting New Delhi to Jammu Tawi. Named as 'Duronto" service with AC and non-AC sleeper, she announced such 12 trains across the country. She also extended services of weekly 6787 Madurai-Jammu Tawi to Tirunelveli.
Mamata Banerjee set a timeline of August 2009 to put in operation Qazigund-Anantnag railway track. She said work on the project has got a setback as difficulties have been faced on part of the line from Udhampur to Katra and Katra to Qazigund.
An official from his Ministry later told KTNS that an expert committee set up to review the alignment on Katra-Qazigund section has submitted its report and a decision on re-starting the work on the segment will be taken soon. Mamata also said that her foremost concern was the safety of the passengers. "Therefore, the decision in this project has to be made very carefully. I will review the mater soon and see how quickly this section of the national project can be taken up for completion," she said. Her Ministry official said they can extend Qazigund-Baramullah line upto Kupwara if the state government submits such request as it was an easy sector as compared to Katra-Qazigund.
PM HAILS: These earned her instant kudos from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "a competent job done" in declaring vast amenities using "innovative financing mechanism of public-private partnership (PPP)." He praised her vow to revive her dumped innovative idea in the previous tenure in the NDA regime to utilise vast land with Railways and air space through PPP mode over the next three years "to do wonders" in the non-traditional revenue generation.
Nor did she forget to decry little progress in commercial utilisation of the optic fibre cable network along the Railway track she launched eight years and announced an expert panel, headed by India's telecom revolution Czhar Sam Pitroda, to suggest how to use it to take information technology to the doorsteps in the remotest areas. The scheme she envisaged in 2001-02 budget was to provide free Internet telephony to villages.
VIABILITY FACTOR: She also debunked the Railways' age-old mindset of vetting "economic viability" for laying rail lines and running trains, saying it should be substituted by "social viability."
"Are fruits of development to be restricted only to a privileged few and not to the teeming population in remote and backward areas of our country? These projects may be economically unviable but are an economic necessity for the people who have remained victims of backwardness and poverty," she underlined.
She also promised to review recruitment policy and functioning of the Railway Recruitment Boards.
NOT WB-CENTRIC: She earned laurels for a national perspective in her budget proposals and not remaining confined to be West Bengal-centric as expected to gain in the Assembly elections two years away. Gone is also the shrillness for which she was known, perhaps from contentment of resounding victory in the Lok Sabha polls and then in the civic elections, as she tackled interventions with all sobriety.ÿ
Trains she announced included two low-priced AC chair "Yuva Trains", 12 non-stop point-to-point long distance trains, AC double-decker inter-city trains, 57 new trains, 27 extended to new destinations and frequency of 13 others increased. She also announced special trains to carry perishable fruits, vegetables and fish and setting up cold storage and perishable cargo centres.
The fare for the two weekly "Yuva Trains" to be launched on experimental within three months between Mumbai and Delhi and Kolkata and Delhi will be Rs 299 up to 1500 km and Rs 399 for distances up to 2500 km. Her plans are to introduce such trains between major cities to enable youth and low income groups travel at low rates.
Rs 25 MONTHLY TICKET: The most striking sop was, however, a monthly season ticket of Rs 25 for people in the unorganised sector with monthly income of less than Rs 1500 for travel up to 100 km. She called it her gift to the poorest of the poor to travel with dignity, naming the scheme as "Izzat." She invited MPs to identify the intended beneficiaries.
She also made accredited press correspondents happy, waiving necessity to buy concessional coupons and instead giving them photo identity cum credit card to get reservation done and that too at the increased concession of 50 percent instead of 45. Going still further, she allowed them travel with spouse once a year at 50 percent concession and declared that the correspondents and family members not availing this concession will get compact accommodation on trains.
Free monthly second class season ticket to travel between home and school hitherto available to girls up to graduation and boys up to 12th was further extended to students of Madrasas. In case of Madrasa students in her hometown Kolkata, she declared 60 percent concession in the metro fare.
She also proposed introduction of "Only Ladies" EMU trains in Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata suburban during office rush hours, on the lines of ladies locals run in Mumbai.
NON-STOP TRAINS: Mamata called her innovative 12 non-stop point-to-point trains with AC and non-AC sleeper class as "Duranto." These include biweekly Mumbai-Howrah, triweekly Mumbai-Ahmedabad, byweekly Pune-Delhi and New Delhi-Jammu.
She also announced strict monitoring of extensive availability of 'janata khana' (low-cost meals), national and regional cuisines, development of 50 stations as world class stations and upgrading of 375 stations as 'adarsh' (model) stations.
The world class stations envisaged by her include CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, New Delhi, Jaipur, Ajmer, Porbandar, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Secunderabad and Tirupati.
MODEL STATIONS: Over two dozen local stations of Mumbai figure among the 'adarsh' stations that will have all basic facilities as also waiting rooms and dormitories for ladies. Andheri, Bandra, Borivali, Bhayandar, Churchgate, Dadar, Currey Road, Dahanu Road, Dockyard Road, Dombivali, Ghatkopar, Goregaon, King's Cicle, Kurla, Malad, Marine ines, Matunga, Mira Road, Mulund, Mumbai Central, Panvel, Santracruz, Ulhasnagar, Virar, Vashi and Vangaon are among them. Mamata did not forget Amethi as well while listing these model stations.
Construction of multi-functional complexes will be undertaken at 50 stations serving centres of pilgrimage, tourism and industry. They will have shopping facilities, food stalls and budget hotels. The stations identified include Rai Barelly, Vadodara, Gandhidham, Manmad, Nanded, Nashik, Bikaner, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Durg, Indore, Jabalpur, Jammu, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
FIVE PRIORITIES: Mamata identified her five priorities as passenger amenities, cleanliness, quality of railway catering, safety and security, and punctuality. She announced that there will be at least one doctor in long distance trains and ambulance services for passengers will be launched, to start with, at Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Bhubaneshwar.
For a pleasurable travel experience, she announced to provide on-board infotainment services on Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and all important long distance inter-city trains. She said field trials are also on for environment friendly green toilets.
Pointing out that no toilet facilities in DEMU and MEMU trains when the travel time is less than four hours poses difficultie to women, children and aged persons, she promised to have toilets where journey is more than two hours. "Give us a little time, we will do it as early as possible," she said.
RESERVATION: The period of advance booking under the Tatkal Scheme is being reduced from the current five days to two days. Tatkal tickets will be made available destination-wise instead of from end to end, thereby reducing the financial burden on passengers and further the Tatkal charges will be levied as a percentage of the fare, subject to a minimum of Rs 100 instead of Rs 150 as at present.
For taking rail ticketing to people's door steps, Mamata announced computerised ticket counters at 5000 post offices in cities and towns and mobile ticketing vans "Mushkil Assan" so that no need to go to station to buy ticket as one can get it in market places, mohallas and other busy places. Thirty such mobile vans will be introduced in the country this year.
Extending the passenger reservation system (PRS) available at some 800 locations now, she announced to open the facility in 200 new towns and cities and 800 new locations in cities and towns already having the facility. She said each MP of both the Houses of Parliament can identify one PRS of their choice and the Railways will do the needful.
She also declared to increase the unreserved ticketing system by increasing the terminals from 5000 to 8000 and provide automatic vending machines at 200 big and medium sized stations. She promised to expand e-ticketing further for ease of passengers and simplifying cancellation of confirmed e-tickets after preparation of charts.
RAIL STAFF: Mamata also had a bagful of facilities for the Railway staff that included establishment of 17 medical colleges for staff's children. The locations included Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Jammu, Hyderabad and Chennai. Also proposed are seven nursing colleges on PPP model on Railway land for wards of the staff and the places include Kalyan (Mumbai), Secunderabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Jabalpur.
Burn units are promised in all major railway hospitals including those in Mumbai, Secunderabad and Bangalore, dormitories for attendants of patients in 16 railway hospitals and empowering general managers to sanction up to Rs 4 lakhs for medical treatment of the railway persons.