Rail, one of the fine boons awarded to us by the East India Company (British), is regarded as the airplane for Middle class citizens who are a majority in India. Even the upper middle class use it as the transport as it provides comfort of sleeping. Hence this always been a Ministry that has been responsible for providing huge income to the government since the time it was left after by the English and also a regular visitor in a family man’s expenditure book. So the railway budget has always accounted for much speculation every year and this year to the budget never went unnoticed.
When Pawan Kumar Bansal started listing out the projects and reforms, it was usually accompanied by shouts and anger vented out by the opposition MP’s and also with bench tap’s by congress MP’s the time minister announced reforms completed a Signature railway budget like the way every time it was announced at the parliament.
So we here have the need to understand this budget in a different perspective. So here we subject this budget to analysis in ‘INDUSTRIAL ‘, ‘CITIZEN’ AND ‘GOVERNMENT’ point of view which will provide a far better understanding.
Rail Budget 2013 Analysis #1 – The Industrial Perspective
Let’s take the ‘Industrial point of view’ first. In this perspective we will analyze the improvements in rail projects, expansion of stations, workshops, manufacturing sites and other technical aspects.
- There are nine rail factory projects that have been proposed at Rae Bareli, EMU and coach manufacturing units at Bhilwara and sonepat district and signaling facility proposed at Chandigarh.
- There are a total of 67 express trains , 26 passenger trains and 14 Emu that has been drafted to whistle out in a couple of months.
- There is a signaling Facility proposed at Chandigarh.
- There are rehabilitation workshops proposed to be set up at places in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.
On the down side, there is a query from the opposition that out of the nine rail factory sites, seven are proposed at places where congress MP’s won their elections. Also the railway budget saw downfall in the stakes of companies such as BEML, Kernex Microsystems, and texmaco rail fall in the share market as an effect of the budget which was criticized that it did not rake in much revenue.
Rail Budget 2013 Analysis #2 – The Citizen’s Perspective
Secondly let’s take the ‘citizen point of view’. We will highlight what kinds of an impact will this budget create on citizens and what are amenities provided to them. To start with, this year’s budget has weighed heavily on Tariff’s and the ministry has balanced it on the weighing scale by providing safety and other comfort amenities on the other side.
Technology has been improved by providing signaling systems for providing warning to trains during emergency and avoiding train collisions.
- Fire/Smoke detection systems has been installed on each coaches in the train to detect fire accidents and take prior action.
- A dedicated set of Railway police force (RPF) women personnel has been assigned for women citizen protection.
- Ten percent of vacancies in RPF allotted for women.
- One and a half lakhs vacancies have been announced that is about to be filled this year. One-third announced for reservation and physically challenged quota.
- For the disabled persons , escalators and lifts have been installed in certain stations accounting for higher population density identified by their income , stations earning more than sixty crore’s have got the nod.
This time the ministry has brought some technology innovations like the private sector companies to cater to the needs of corporate and other sect of people by providing better services.
- Executive lounges have been set up in stations such as Vizag, Patna and Bangalore.
- Help lines have been set-up to address complaints on cleanliness and other customer related matters.
- Internet Booking has been given a better look-up; number of users logging in has been increases from 40,000 to 1.2 lakhs users.
- WI-FI facility has been provided at major stations to provide better connectivity and prompt service citizens.
- Automatic ticket vending machines have been installed and information on reservation through SMS has been put up.
Executive classes have been installed in trains like in airplanes to provide premium service providing luxury and exquisite ambiance.
To highlight the drawbacks is that the increase in fares that will be discussed in the next perspective, it has delivered a blow in a common man’s expenses, even though introduction of Wi-Fi, executive classes has been made for passenger’s convenience, what an ordinary man will be focusing on is cutting down on fares in some form or the other which hasn’t happened.
Rail Budget 2013 Analysis #3 – The Government’s Perspective
Finally we need to analyze the ‘Government’s Point of View’. When we come to this perspective, we must consider that all the government is expecting is increase in its revenue and profit margin. So it has taken some measures to serve its purpose.
- There has been a steady and too a steep increase in diesel costs. Hence, to compensate with this fares have been hiked in left, right, and center such that government earns an additional four thousand two hundred crore.
- There has also been amended that there will be a five percent constant hike per year for next 10 years. It has already said price hike has been done in the case of Tatkal, cancellation costs have been increased and reservation charges have been hiked.
- The government has aimed on milking executive class of people; hence reservation fee has been hiked for AC and first class.
- It has also been quoted that ticket price in the future may be a dependent variable on fuel price.
- Tatkal [Emergency booking] has its prices stepped up between the ranges of rs.15 and rs.100.
- Freight charges have been increased by about 5.79%.
- There has also been amended that there will be a five percent constant hike per year for next 10 years.
So, the government has shown its intent of increasing its profit margin in its side , it has asked or dumped in some cases its compensation for losses in its previous years on the common man. As usual the middle class citizens will be the front line victims in this case.
Hence to sum it up, the railway ministry has hiked its prices in all forms so as to compensate for the losses incurred, diesel price hike but on the better side a lot of modern technology and other measures has been incorporated for improving passenger safety and better accessibility and making the system much user friendly, for which the ministry mulls that the price rise is for implementation of these modern trends and is required for its sustenance purpose, but what dependent companies on railways say is that ‘This a old wine in a bottle’. But on a social perspective we can look into this price rise, either it may be for fuel demand or for modern facilities, but we can see it as a citizen’s responsibility which he can take to make the government improve and support taking steps forward for a sound governance.
