Rail budget leaves users, experts cold in Bihar

PATNA: Railway budget 2012-2013 presented in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday by railway minister Dinesh Trivedi evoked mixed response from trade union representatives, railway officials, experts and common people.
A large number of passengers at Patna Junction and Danapur station remained glued to TV sets to watch the telecast of railway budget. Some of them were disappointed as no superfast train like Duronto was given to Bihar, particularly on the Patna-Bangalore, Patna-Delhi, Patna-Pune and Patna-Mumbai routes. A few students were unhappy that railways did not give any concession to students going outside the state to take various examinations. They also did not appreciate the move of railways to hike fare of all classes.
Based on the proposed per-km fare hike, the fare for New Delhi from Patna would go up by Rs 300 in AC1, Rs 150 in AC2, Rs 100 in AC3 and Rs 50 in sleeper class respectively, said Asish Ranjan.
Reacting to the rail budget, a former technical expert of railways, G N Sahay, said the budget was disappointing in the sense that it failed to provide funds for the Dalmianagar wagon and coupling factory, which was announced in 2008 itself. "This factory is important for the railways as it would produce high axle load wagons which would be required by the railways for dedicated freight corridor (DFC)," he said, adding the rail budget has totally ignored Bihar's interest and was silent on the Dehri-Banjari new line project as well.
Bihar Daily Passengers Association president B N Sahay, too, was disappointed with the rail budget and described it as anti-Bihar. Instead of releasing funds for the completion of pending projects in Bihar, the railway minister has deliberately sidelined Bihar. Sahay said the rail budget has made no announcement regarding new MEMUs or DEMUs either.
Giving vent to their feelings, several South Indians living in Patna said that the rail budget once gain did not consider their genuine demand for extension of the Patna-Ernakulam Express up to Thiruvananthapuram. The demand for increase in the frequency of South-bound train was also ignored in the budget, they said.
On the other hand, ECR railway officials hailed the budget, saying it focused more on safety, tracks, signalling, rolling stock and upgradation of stations.
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