NEW DELHI –Indian Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced Friday a raft of new trains and the highest-ever annual investment outlay of $12.71 billion for rail upgrades in the year beginning April 1, but said freight and passenger fares will be unchanged to keep a lid on inflation.
In the annual budget released Friday in parliament Ms. Banerjee announced as many as 68 new trains, including nine non-stop ones between major cities in 2011-12. The railways, the country's biggest employer, have a budget which is separate from the main federal one, which is set to be unveiled on Monday.
"We have been through a tough phase, but the railway is gaining strength day by day," she said, referring to the growing traffic volumes post an economic slowdown.
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India's Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, right, sat in a train in Darjeeling, West Bengal, Sept. 27, 2010.
The railways gross traffic receipts rose to 1.06 trillion rupees during 2010-11, according a government statement.
During a speech that was punctuated by opposition uproar, Ms. Banerjee said the railways will also complete as much as 1,300 kilometers of new lines, compared to the post-1950 an annual average of 180 kilometers per year.
This was the third budget for Ms. Banerjee since becoming railway minister in 2009 and critics had expected her to announce a "populist budget." particularly as her regional Trinamool Congress Party is hoping to win provincial elections in West Bengal later this year, after more than three decades of communist rule.
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Ms. Banerjee announced a string of new railway-based industries such as a locomotive manufacturing unit in the remote northeastern state of Manipur, a bridge manufacturing factory in the troubled state of Kashmir, a computer software center in her native West Bengal's Darjeeling hill area, as well as two railway industry parks.
She also announced that as many as 236 railway stations would be upgraded in the year starting April and that four new passenger terminals would be built in three states--Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The minister said the budget had adopted a two-pronged approach aimed at boosting the growth of the railways as well as the welfare of the people.
She said that the railways would construct 10,000 shelters for the poor in three states, and recruit as many as 175,000 vacant posts including 16,000 former military persons.
The Indian railways employees 1.4 million employees and plays a crucial role in keeping India's economy and its people moving.
Ms. Banerjee said the railways would double annual borrowings to 205.9 billion rupees to expand the capacity for 2011-12, out of which the Indian Railway Financial Corp. Ltd.--a finance arm of railway ministry--planned to raise as much 100 billion rupees by issuing tax-free bonds.
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