Saturday, February 26 2005 13:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Sparing all classes of passengers from any fare hike and goods from an across-the-boarder freight and parcel rates increase, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today (Feb 26, 2005) sought to present a populist Budget for 2005-06 proposing sops for farmers, milk producers, unemployed youth and rural students.

However, in a bid to rationalise goods tariff, he has proposed merging of various classes of commodities to bring them down from 4,000 to 80 due to which freight on many goods may go up and on some it may come down. He did not spell out revenue implications of this move.

To ensure that freight rate on kerosene and LPG does not go up, the classes of the two commodities have been reduced due to which the freight on them will get reduced by 3.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent respectively.

Presenting his second budget amidst an Opposition boycott, Laloo extended full concession in travel to unemployed youth appearing for interviews of State Government jobs.

He also proposed 50 per cent concession in second-class fares to farmers and milk producers for travel to institutes of national level for training.

A 75 per cent concession in second-class fares has been proposed for Government rural school students, once a year, for study tour. Likewise, a similar relief is being proposed for girls in Government schools in rural areas for attending national level entrance examinations for medical, engineering and other professional courses in colleges.

Relief at times of natural calamities

The Railways will also carry relief to areas affected by natural calamities and disasters free of cost on a priority basis. Affected persons will be provided free second-class transportation.

Bodies of those who die after undergoing treatment in major Government hospitals will be carried on priority basis to their hometown at 50 percent of normal tariff rates.

The budget pegged the Railway plan outlay for 2005-06 at Rs 11,827 crore with a budgetary support of Rs 4,718 crore for plan expenditure through internal resource generation.

Taking into account the outlay of Rs 3,522 crore on safety-related works, the total outlay comes to Rs 15,349 crore, an increase of Rs 851 crore over last year's outlay.

Buoyancy of freight loading

Enthused by the trend of buoyancy of freight loading in 2004-05, the Railways are expecting to carry 635 million tonnes of revenue earning originating freight traffic during the coming year, which is 35 million tonnes more than the current year's traffic likely to be lifted.

The current year's target has been revised from 580 to 600 million tonnes.

The originating passenger traffic is estimated to go up by four per cent in the current year, which will result in increasing the earnings by 7.4 per cent over the revised estimates of the current year.

On the basis of these assumptions and considering various rationalisation measures proposed, the gross traffic receipts (GTR) are estimated at Rs 50,968 crore, Rs 4,183 crore higher than the revised estimates of the current year.

Railways plan Track Side Bogie Monitoring System

As part of safety initiatives, a pilot project for development of 'Track Side Bogie Monitoring System' is proposed to be launched, Railway Minister announced at the Lok Sabha today.

This system uses wayside detectors to monitor performance of bogies including bearing, which relay warning signals to the nodal stations about abnormal conditions, enabling advance action to be taken before the vehicle causes damage, he said presenting the Railway Budget for 2005-06.

To enable quick response for both rescue and restoration, medical relief trains and trains carrying equipment for restoration have been upgraded for operation at 100 kmph, he said.