Populist tinkering now, vision later

The flamboyance of former railway minister Lalu Prasad gave way to a rather conservative Rail Budget 2009-10 presented by UPA’s new railway minister Mamata Mamata, who decided to continue with most of Prasad’s policies but clipped the freight loading to a more realistic target of less than 6% over that achieved in 2008-09.

For 2009-10, Mamata has estimated her cash balance will be 26.5% lower at Rs 14,201.27 crore. Accordingly, in her first Rail Budget presented under the UPA on Friday, she has decided to be prudent on the financial front, eschewing the lure of cutting passenger fares. She also left freight rates untouched. But she has managed to fulfill her earlier promise of providing monthly season tickets of Rs 25 to those with a monthly income of less than Rs 1,500—called izzat—along with announcing fare concessions to students and youth while promising on-board infotainment on the Rajdhanis and Shatabdis.

Her largesse has been concentrated on West Bengal. She has extracted a series of projects for the state, including a new locomotive unit, a coach factory and another 1,000 MW

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