The News Minute| July 9, 2014| 12:25 pm IST
The Modi government’s first Rail Budget was an awaited one, especially so after the 14.2% passenger fare hike. There were many speculations before and comments on the tenor and content afterwards. This is how some of the major newspapers covered it:
The Indian Express says, “Finances derailed, Gowda invites FDI, makes few tall claims”. Keeping in mind the funds constraint, the new measures announced are relatively low cost and include many ideas that the Railways has been trying out in the past. The Express has called Gowda’s budget one to bring the Railways back on track. It says, ”In a marked departure from past rail budgets, the NDA government, in its first year, has refrained from announcing a bouquet of sops, focusing instead on measures like private investments — both domestic and foreign — to bring the Railways back on track."
The Mint however has been sceptical of the budget and calls it, ‘Rail Budget: Long on vision, short on specifics.’ The story says, “The vision statement, however, failed to list specific deliverables or finite timelines, triggering disappointment in the stock markets that held great expectations from the rail budget. The Sensex fell nearly 2%, or 518 points, to 25,582.11.”
The Hindu also noted that there were no major policy announcements as was expected, the paper’s editorial says, “His presentation was full of ideas and policy formulations, but lacked concrete proposals or a vision or road map to take the Indian Railways forward.”
Business Standard said that the rail budget struck a ‘conservative tone’ and that Sadanand Gowda had laid bare the rot in the railway’s finances. ‘On track, Off track’ was how it summarized the key points. The paper reported that around 5 lakh crore would be required over the next years to complete the projects and said the task before Gowda was clearly enormous. However, it welcomed the organizational revamp whereby the policy formulation and implementation functions of the Railway Board will be separated.
The Times of India highlighted the proposal to introduce 58 new trains, branded food and the focus on safety. It noted what kind of funds would be required for the project and what the available funds were. The report also highlighted the IT initiatives that are to be brought about in the railway reservation system- paperless offices, wi-fi services and mobile-based applications. It did not comment on the viability or the tone of the budget.