New Delhi: There were some lighter moments when Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, while presenting the Railway Budget 2015, played with his name 'Prabhu' or referred to his Parliamentary colleagues.
Talking about reviving the Indian Railways and infusing some new ideas, Prabhu said in the next five years, the government's priority will be to significantly improve capacity on the existing high-density networks. Improving capacity on existing networks is cheaper. There are no major land acquisition issues and completion time is shorter, he said.
He said the emphasis will be on gauge conversion, doubling, tripling and electrification. Average speed will increase. Trains will become more punctual. Goods trains can be timetabled.
"A question arises in my mind, 'Hey Prabhu (Lord), how will it be possible?' When Prabhu (Lord) did not respond then this Prabhu thought that Indian Railways should get a gift in the centenary year of Mahatma Gandhi's return to India by taking inspiration from him. Why the Indian Railways cannot be rejuvenated, situations can be changed and ways can be found in such a vast country with enormous resources, massive manpower and such strong will power?," he said, making the members to burst into a peel of laughter.
The Minister then went on to refer to a novel by Shubhada Gogate titled "khandalyachya ghatasaathi". He said the novel is a fictionalised account of India's first railway line being constructed crossing the Sahyadri range. "You build a section at a time. You build a tunnel at a time. You then move on to the next section and the next tunnel. You build bit by bit. We must restore the strength of Bhartiya Rail as the backbone of our country's transportation infrastructure," he said.
Prabhu said the Bhartiya Rail must substantially regain the market share of freight transport. Rail transport must be made reliable, comfortable and safe and benchmarked to global standards. "Some new things will have to be added, old things will have to be dismantled, some engines will have to be replaced, some parts will have to be changed, some weaknesses will have to be done away with, some paths will have to changed and some new directions will have to be taken," he said.
The Minister also quoted freedom fighter Vinoba Bhave and said adopting a medium-term perspective, any organization must address short-term priorities without glossing over the long-term and medium-term vision. "As Vinoba Bhave once said 'You will stumble if you look close to your heels and would certainly fall if you ignore the vision of the long road.' Madam Speaker, this Railway Budget is part of a trilogy of documents that chart out our vision for the future," he said.
Coming to high-speed trains, he said his Parliamentary colleagues from Kolkata and Mumbai should reach Delhi in a night's travel. "Speed of nine freight corridors will be increased to complete inter-city travel overnight. We plan dedicated freight corridor feeder routes with private players' help. Delhi-Mumbai journey and Delhi-Kolkata can be completed overnight due to improvement in train speeds," he said.
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