Indian Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi will present his maiden railway budget for 2012–13 in Parliament House, New Delhi on Wednesday, March 14, 2012. Passenger fares are likely to be hiked for the expansion of world's second largest railroad network. Trivedi is also likely to announce few new trains.
Passenger fares have been on a freeze since 2002–03 as Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, a former railway minister, is opposed to hiking fares. In the process, the railways has little money to expand the network. Trivedi is also a Trinamool leader.
A cash strapped Indian Railways, which runs 10,500 trains and ferries 22 million passengers daily over 64,000 km of track, is looking at an earnings shortfall of Rs 7,000 crore.
Poor financial management has left Indian Railways staring at an earnings shortfall despite gross budgetary support of Rs 20,000 crore last year and Rs 3,000 crore loan approved by the finance ministry on Feb. 6.
0 comments:
Post a Comment