Eyes fixed on poll, Mamata goes all out to woo Bengal

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Railway minister Mamata Banerjee addresses a press conference after presenting the Railway Budget at Parliament in New Delhi

The Indian Railways may not be riding the gravy train given its own precarious financial position, but the people of West Bengal certainly were as Ms Mamata Banerjee presented her third and perhaps last Railway Budget in Parliament on Friday.

In an exercise clearly driven by a populist agenda, just months away from what promises to be a landmark Assembly election in West Bengal, Ms Banerjee doled out a substantial share of goodies for her home state for the second year running, in the process provoking the ire of several MPs from Bihar belonging to the RJD and JD(U).
The middle class and the aam aadmi across the country too had reason to be happy: Ms Banerjee once again did not effect any increase in either passenger fares or freight rates. In fact, she effected some minor cuts in reservation and booking charges.
Three other states also due to go to the polls this summer — Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam — got some goodies as well though Ms Banerjee was not as munificent with them as she was with West Bengal. Tamil Nadu was promised that a second unit would soon be functioning at the Integral Coach Factory, Perambur, while two more wagon units will be set up in Kerala. Assam will get a Rail Industrial Park in New Bongaigaon.
Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli constituency is expected to see the first rail coach rolling out in the next three months from the new coach factory set up there.
Among the new rail projects allotted to West Bengal are a new track machine POH facility and a manufacturing unit for making large on-track machines in Uluberia, a Rail Industrial Park at Jellingham, a Metro coach factory at Singur, a centre for excellence in software in Darjeeling under CRIS, mechanised laundries, etc. This, of course, is apart from the new trains, new lines, “adarsh” stations and multi-function complexes that the state has got in plenty.
Again, in a decision that will find resonance in West Bengal, Ms Banerjee announced the introduction of two new train services, each named after a famous personality from the state. So four Vivek Expresses (named after Swami Vivekananda) and four Kavi Guru Expresses (named after Rabindranath Tagore) will be introduced in the coming fiscal year.
She also said that to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, a train called “Sonar Tori” is all set to travel to Bangladesh on a “cultural” mission. This trip, incidentally, has been on the anvil since August last year. An exhibition train called “Mother Express”, which pays tribute to the life of Mother Teresa, also closely associated with Kolkata and West Bengal, is also there, as well as the “Aurobindo Express”, commemorating the life of Sri Aurobindo.
The Northeast, which is geographically close to West Bengal and with poor rail connectivity, also figured prominently in Ms Banerjee’s Railway Budget, with a diesel locomotive centre that is to come up in Manipur and a Rail Industrial Park in New Bongaigaon. The minister further announced that a non-lapsable fund has been created for railway projects in the Northeast, and that all state capitals in the region will be connected to the nationwide rail network in the next seven years.
Ms Banerjee’s munificence for Bengal saw Bihar’s MPs not only protesting loudly, disrupting Ms Banerjee’s speech in the Lok Sabha, but they even trooped into the Well of the House to show their unhappiness over the alleged long delays in rail projects pending in their state.
The MPs were provoked while Ms Banerjee was busy rattling off a series of improvements and facilities for the Kolkata Metro, which is directly under the control of the railway ministry, among them the introduction of no less than 34 new services in the coming fiscal year. While her logic was that it is the country’s only Metro under her direct charge, the Bihar MPs were clearly unwilling to swallow that explanation. Later, when asked if her Budget was not too Bengal-centric, the minister shot back that “Bengal is not outside India”.
For the eight year running, the Indian Railways have managed not to increase passenger fares even as it battles the heavy burden cast on it by the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, which has led to an additional expenditure of a whopping `73,000 crores for the Railways, which it has to meet internally.
But given that her party, the Trinamul Congress, is a little over two months away from an epic Assembly battle in her home state, a hike in fares was never seriously on the cards.
Her logic for not effecting a fare hike, Ms Banerjee told reporters later, was this: “If I hike fares, the Railways will earn `300 crores, `400 crores or `500 crores. But it will be the easy option.” She then drew attention to the `1,500-crore loss suffered by the Railways due to disruption in the movement of trains. To a query on whether this was her last Railway Budget, Ms Banerjee retorted: “I am not a political astrologer”.
While Ms Banerjee herself admitted in her speech that the “Indian Railways are passing through a very difficult phase” financially, at the same time it managed to achieve an operating ratio of 92.1 per cent. Asked how this was done, Railway Board chairman Vivek Sahai attributed it to “railwaymen performing their duty”, and also the austerity drive which helped the Railways mop up around `3,700 crores.
The troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir has been given a bridge factory as well as a Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering in Jammu. The introduction of a new Super AC class on board trains was also announced by the minister. The fares of this class, however, are yet to be worked out, officials said.
Among new train services announced by Ms Banerjee are nine new Durontos, three Shatabdis, two double-decker AC trains, 190 Rajya Rani Express trains linking state capitals to other cities in the state and four Janmabhoomi Gaurav trains.
She also announced the Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojna for socially desirable projects though it will remain on paper for some time as the money for it will only be available under the yet-to-be-launched 12th Five-Year Plan. She also announced the launch of the Sukhi Griha Scheme for persons living along railway lines, which will be taken up on a pilot basis.
On passenger safety and security, Ms Banerjee said anti-collision devices will be introduced in four more rail zones, having been tried out on a pilot basis in four other zones earlier. It might be noted that two serious train accidents, both involving collisions, have taken place during Ms Banerjee’s tenure as minister.