New Delhi: The Railway Ministry is gearing up to announce a few more Garib Rath trains in the coming Budget even as three pairs of Garib Rath, which were announced last year, are yet to be rolled out.
While the next rail Budget is just a fortnight away, Kolkata-Guwahati, Ranchi-Bhubaneswar and Nizamuddin-Dehradun Garib Rath express trains are yet to be operational due to the unavailability of the coaches.
"The announcement made in the budget will be fully implemented before March 31," said a senior ministry official. "The coaches are being readied for the three Garib Rath trains at Kapurthala coach factory and they would be operational before the end of the current financial year," he said.
Railways had announced eight Garib Rath trains, the common man's air-conditioned train, in the last Budget out of which five have been rolled out.
It was promised in the last Rail Budget that all the state capitals would now be linked with Garib Rath trains in the coming years like Rajdhani trains.
Besides announcing some new trains, a major part of the budgetary resources would be allocated for infrastructure, including construction of bridges and new lines, said the official.
The total plan outlay to be presented in the coming Rail Budget is likely to be around Rs 36,000 crore while railways are expected to generate a substantial revenue to meet the growing expenditure through public-private partnership.
This time the focus is likely to meet most of the expenditures through internal resources, said the official. Railway Ministry is expected to implement the recommendation of the Sixth Pay Commission in 2008-09 and the government has asked the ministry to make a provision of Rs 9000 crore from its own sources to pay wages, which are likely to be hiked by the pay panel.
Comments
0 comment