Business | General
Indian Railways records $6.3b surplus
Giant state-run Indian Railways, once on track for bankruptcy, posted a record $6.3 billion surplus on Tuesday, announced new lines and cut fares in a populist budget with elections looming.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:27 February 27, 2008
New Delhi: Giant state-run Indian Railways, once on track for bankruptcy, posted a record $6.3 billion surplus on Tuesday, announced new lines and cut fares in a populist budget with elections looming.
"The world today acknowledges I've done a tremendous job," said the wisecracking Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, presenting his fifth railway budget since the Congress-led coalition government took office in 2004.
The railway budget for the fiscal year to March 2009 is seen as a harbinger of the national budget, which comes on Friday and is the last expected to be presented before the next general elections due within 12 to 15 months.
The charismatic minister, known for his self-congratulatory style, said the railway would post a record cash surplus of Rs250 billion or $6.3 billion this year, up from a $4.4 billion surplus the previous year.
The surplus, helped by higher freight traffic in a booming economy, came after experts warned in 2001 the Victorian-era railway was mired in a "terminal debt trap" and faced bankruptcy.
Yadav presented what the media dubbed a "please-all" budget with steps to boost freight operations, cut freight and passenger fares and improve services such as reservations and toilets - both often an ordeal on Indian trains.
The budget contained planned record spending of Rs370 billion ($9.27 billion), up 21 per cent from the previous year, on new dedicated high density freight routes, network expansion, safety and other improvements.
Priority "has been given to modernisation," Yadav said. Easing transport bottlenecks are regarded as vital to spurring economic growth.
The fare cuts were seen as aimed at curbing inflation, running at a six-month high of 4.35 per cent, that has hit hardest India's poor masses credited with giving the government its 2004 upset win.
Yadav said the government would spend Rs750 billion ($18.8 billion) over seven years to increase the capacity of about 20,000 km (12,400 miles) of rail lines used to transport coal and iron ore.
It would also try to use public-private partnerships to build world-class stations, rolling stock and logistics parks with a targeted investment of $25 billion.
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