Railway Budget for the fiscal year 2009-10

Mamata Banerjee, the railway minister presented the rail budget on July 3, 2009. The interim Railway Budget for the fiscal year 2009-10 was presented on Feb 13th, 2009, in the Parliament by Lalu Prasad Yadav. Because a new government has come in at the centre, a new budget needs to be presented for the fiscal year 2009-10. Some of the high points of the Rail Budget are as follows –

Revenue, Targets and Fares

• The targets for revenues for 2009-10 were lowered than what was set by her predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav. She claimed that they were too high considering that Railways failed to meet its target in 2008-09.
• The net revenue of Indian Railways has been pegged at Rs 8,121.48 crore down from Rs 10,876.48 crore as presented in the interim budget in February this year by Lalu Prasad.
• No increase in passenger fares and freight hikes
• She has proposed making 'Tatkal' scheme more user-friendly by reducing the advance booking period from five days to two days and minimum charge from Rs 150 to Rs 100.

New Trains and improvement of stations

• To cut whopping losses of about Rs 40,000 crore every year because of fruit and vegetables getting wasted, she has proposed introducing special trains to reduce the damage.
• She has also said that the Railways would facilitate movements of village handicrafts, and cottage industry and textile products from production clusters like Tirupur, Dhanekhali, and Shantipur to consumption centres to promote small-scale industries by providing them access to new markets.
• Proposal for a 57 new trains, increasing frequency for few trains, for new lines, for gauge conversions
• Has proposed to develop 50 stations like CST Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur etc with public private partnership.
• Twelve non-stop point-to-point Turant trains between select cities to be introduced such as Howrah-Mumbai, Delhi-Lucknow etc.
• One doctor to be posted on long distance trains.
• An Integrated Security System is being developed for 130 vulnerable stations to provide security to passengers.
• Announcement regarding introduction of air conditioned double-decker services, ladies specials, Yuva Express.

Improvements in ticketing System

• Unreserved ticketing terminals to be expanded from 5000 to 8000.
• Automatic ticket vending machines to be increased.
• Passengers can now buy reserved tickets from 5,000 post office.
• The Minister announced the introduction of mobile ticketing vans 'Mushkil Aasaan' for issuing reserved and unreserved tickets in both urban and rural areas.

Schemes for Minorities

• It has been proposed to devise a scheme that will provide for separate recruitment drives for minorities like SC, ST, women and economically backward class.
• She announced concessions for unorganised sector by proposing monthly season ticket of Rs 25 for people with monthly income of up to Rs 1,500 for travel up to 100 km calling it the ‘izzat’ scheme.

Stock Market Reaction

Stock Market rose by +250 points following the Rail budget announcement. The stocks impacted directly by rail infrastructure announcement expectations like Integra Hindustan Control and Stone India soared close to 5% each in morning trades on July 3.