23 Feb : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Railway budget, to be presented in Parliament on Wednesday, was dedicated to people.
In an informal chat with journalists, Banerjee said the country belonged to the people, so any budgetary proposal had to benefit them.
“The common people are the assets of the country. They have to be taken care of and developed,” she said, underlining that the effort was to ensure continuity. But she refused to say anything on the budget.
Later on Tuesday, she called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and took him into confidence about the budgetary proposals. The visit was described as a customary exercise.
Soon after the meeting, Banerjee held consultations with senior members of the Railway Board, apparently to work out last-minute revisions.
The BJP said it would not disrupt the presentation of the budget, though it was agitating over the price rise.
As far as expectations from the Railway budget are concerned, experts are expecting her to leave passenger fares untouched.
She is expected to rationalize freight rates keeping the essential commodities aside.
Besides the Peace Express, a ‘Culture Express’ is also slated to be announced as railways’ tourism package to cover India’s important heritage sites.
Expansion of Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) connecting Mumbai with Kolkata and Chennai with Mangalore are also expected to be announced in the budget.
Railways are likely to include Kharagpur station in the list of world class railway station project.
It had already announced 50 stations including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Sealdah, Banglaore, Lucknow and Bhubaneswar to be upgraded as world class station.