Journey of the Indian railway budget

By Aditya Mhatre at 14 February, 2009, 1:46 am

With the turn around of the Railways from a perpetually loss making to a profit making venture has completely changed Lalu’s image from the most mocked politician to a guest lecturer at IIM Ahmedabad.

Lalu recently presented the interim Railways budget for 2009 with his new found self confidence. The railways have come a long way since 2004 when Lalu first took over the railway portfolio. Lalu might have started with Kulhad and Khadi bed sheets in 2004 but is now taking about bullet trains and railway bookings over the internet. The passenger traffic and goods traffic have gone up substantially leading to railways earning Rs 47,000 crores in 2004-05 to 82,000 crores in 2008-09. The expenses have gone up but the railways has Rs 50000 crores as cash in hand earned over several years.

How did this happen? Well, several things. One, Increased focus on freight by increasing the freight fare, faster turnaround time for wagons and even overloading them. The railways have managed to make revenue from Freight its bread and butter. While doing this, the passenger fares were reduced significantly but added a lot more trains hence the traffic increased and compensated for the reduced fares.

The railways have also reached Tripura and Kashmir and are seen as emotional victories for Railways but a lot more needs to be done. The rail penetration has increased only 17% since independence.

And of course, Lalu was his humorous self while presenting the interim rail budget for 2009-10.

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