Railway Budget 2000-01

    Presenting the Railway Budget 2000-01 in the Lok Sabha today, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, Union Minister of Railways said that Indian Railways which is the life line of the nation is at a turning point today. Capital support from the General Exchequer, peaking in the Fifth Plan at 75 per cent, has slid down to 18% in the last two years of the Eighth Plan. "…somewhere during the journey after independence Indian Railways have similarly been thrown off the development train.", the Minister said, drawing a parallel with the plight Gandhiji found himself in at a railway platform in South Africa.

    Austerity measures have so far borne gains to the tune of Rs. 850 crore, the Minister said. Working expenses are now placed at Rs. 25,790 crore and Pension liabilities are assessed to go up to Rs. 4094 crore. The Plan expenditure, on account of resource crunch, has been kept at Rs. 8965 crore against the budgetary outlay of Rs. 9700 crore.The Minister assured the House that this will not affect any safety related work.

    Stating that the railways propose to bank on non-traditional sources of revenue, the minister said that besides commercial utilisation of land, air space, hoarding and billboards alongside tracks etc. the Railways have plans to construct 100 budget hotels and shopping complexes on Railway land.

    Ms. Banerjee said that the Railways have decided to utilise its Right of Way (ROW) covering sixty-two thousand eight hundred kilometres, passing through more than seven thousand stations, for building a nation wide broad band telecom and multi-media network by laying optic-fibre cable (OFC). This will also provide a much-needed parallel nation - wide telecom infrastructure to various telecom operators and Internet Service Providers. The business plan envisaged would bring in considerable additional revenue, the Minister said.