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Journalism of Courage
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday presented his second railway budget in the Parliament. Unlike last year, Prabhu did not propose a hike in passengers fares or freight rates, and introduced three new superfast trains. Prabhu also announced a slew of measures on improving train-travel such as on-demand cleaning of compartments, bio-vacuum toilets and WI-FI at railways stations.
Watch Video | Railway Budget 2016: Here’s What Suresh Prabhu Announced For The Passengers
“This Rail Budget is for the common people,” said Prabhu after announcing the budget.
READ | Bio toilets, senior citizen and women quota – some key announcements by Prabhu
Here are the reactions to Railway Budget 2016-17:
# Budget kahan aaya? Budget hota hai ‘statement of vision’, When we read the fine print then we will come to know what is the failure report: Former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi.
# Railway patri say utar gaya. Ek life line tha. Bullet train nai chahiye desh ko, ye videshion ka nigah hai: Former railway minister Laloo Yadav.
# Certainly this Railway Budget will give a good result in the future: Former railway minister Sadananda Gowda.
# I don’t want to criticize budgets of earlier Govts, but in this budget investment has seen 2 1/2 time jump: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
# It was a visionary budget, many steps laid out which will improve infrastructure: Rajnath Singh
# We all were a bit mystified whether a budget was really presented or not: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
# It was overall a very good budget, will give this Railway Budget 9 out of 10 marks: Minister Prakash Javadekar.
# Mukesh Butani, Managing Partner, BMR Legal: Proposal to develop a new freight tariff structure to evolve a competitive rate structure shall help railways regain market share vis-à-vis other transportation modes, particularly roads. Proposal of generating 10 to 20 percent revenues from non-tariff sources predominantly through asset monetization is a significant leap in revenue mobilization endeavors. On the cost side, the proposed operating ratio at 92 percent for FY ’17, is fairly reasonable target after all, in a year without fare hike and indispensable increase in variable costs.
