New Delhi, Feb 19: The Interim Rail Budget for 2009-10 was passed by the Lok Sabha Thursday with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announcing a few more new trains and outlining plans to step up security in view of terror threats.
The Rs 10,807 crore budget for implementation of Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and to fund various ongoing projects was passed by a voice vote.
Replying to the debate on the last budget presented by him, Prasad rejected the opposition charge that fares were being hiked through the "backdoor", claiming that in the past five years, fares on all classes were lowered, inspite of which the Railways earned a cash surplus of Rs 90,000 crore.
Sme members were not satisfied with the budget. The BJD members walked out alleging that Orissa had been ignored.
Prasad said budgetary support to the Railways had declined from 53 per cent to 29 per cent since 2004 and it was investing over Rs 20,000 crore out of its internal resources
to fund its projects.
In 2004, when the UPA came to power, Rs 13,000 crore was invested on various projects. Now that has gone up to Rs 37,000 crore despite a fall in the budgetary support.
On the safety front, Prasad said the number of accidents had come down from over 400 in 2004 to 195 last year.
To strengthen security on trains and rail property, there was a proposal to recruit 22,000 additional personnel in Railway Protection Force (RPF) and creation of battalions of
Special Protection Force, the Minister said.
The Railways also proposes to acquire 3,000 AK-rifles for RPF and a request in this regard has been sent to the Home Ministry, Prasad said.
In view of terror threat, all railway stations in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata besides 140 other railway stations across the country have been declared as sensitive, he said.
Security at these stations is being upgraded with new measures, including strict access control, installation of CCTVs, setting up facility for detection and disposal of
explosives and passenger and baggage checking, he said.
Responding to the demands of members, Prasad announced launch of some new trains, increase in frequency of a number of trains and extending the services of a few.
Among the new trains, he said two long-distance ones will connect Thiruvananthapuram with Mumbai and Bilaspur.
A rail coach factory would also be established in Palghat region of Kerala.
On the request of Leader of Opposition L K Advani for starting 'Gharib Rath' between his constituency Gandhinagar and Delhi, Prasad said Ahmedabad-Haridwar Mail and
Mumbai-Jaipur Gharib Rath will now pass via Gandhinagar.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 00:00