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Rajya Sabha returns Rail Budget

Rajya Sabha on Friday returned the Railway Budget for 2002-03 after Railway Minister Nitish Kumar assured the House that there will be no privatisation of Railways.

The Budget seeks to mobilise additional Rs 13.68 billion during the next financial year by cutting expenditure, increasing revenue and mobilising additional resources.

"It is a strategic sector and the government has no plans to privatise it. We have followed a middle path after learning from experiences of railways of various countries including the United Kingdom," Kumar said in his reply after members discussed the budget briefly.

The privatisation of railways in Britain is facing lack of operational problems and general resentment from travelling public, he said.

Kumar said passenger amenities during the next year would be further extended with starting of a pilot project for computerised reservation of unreserved tickets from various stations.

He said four unreserved coaches instead of two at present would be attached in all trains to help needy passengers.

Next year, 16 Jan Shatabdi trains with higher speed and better facilities would be started, the minister said.

The first of such trains would be launched on April 16 from Thane in Mumbai to Murgaon on the Konkan Railway route to coincide with the beginning of 150 years of the Railways, he said.

The Minister denied opposition allegation that he had shown step motherly attitude towards some non-Congress states, including West Bengal, in the allocation of funds for new rail projects.

Kumar said from this year onward, railway funds for new projects would be allocated on a well-defined formula based on the criteria of population, area and revenue generation of the state.

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