The budget certainly presents an optimistic strategy for the future. Prabhu is right in saying “We have achieved a lot in the past one year and this budget presents an effort to make it further better.”

Unlike last year, Prabhu did not propose a hike in passengers fares or freight rates, and introduced three new superfast trains. Prabhu also announced a slew of measures on improving train-travel such as on-demand cleaning of compartments, bio-vacuum toilets and WI-FI at railways stations. He promised to move towards getting rail reservation on demand.

Railways is a critical infrastructure for economic development and Prabhu has done well to step up investment, which has seen a two and a half times jump. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is right in saying that it is a “visionary budget” as Prabhu has not gone for more bullet trains, which are capital intensive and not justified at this stage of economic development. Railways now needed to prioritise to strengthen and improve existing rail infrastructure. Proposal to develop three more freight corridors – the North-South corridor Delhi-Chennai, East-West corridor, Kharagpur-Mumbai and East Coast corridor connecting Kharagpur-Vijayawada are welcome development as it would augment trunk routes and provide more capacity for introducing more trains on these congested routes. It will also help in industrial development of hinterland. He has also promised to complete the Delhi-Mumbai and Kolkata-Amritsar freight corridors by 2019 by stepping up the allocation. He has allocated Rs 24,000 crore for these two corridors alone.

The proposal to develop a new freight tariff structure to evolve a competitive rate structure will help railways regain market share vis-à-vis other transportation modes, particularly roads. Proposal of generating 10 to 20 percent revenues from non-tariff sources predominantly through asset monetization is a significant leap in revenue mobilization endeavours.

On the cost side, the proposed operating ratio at 92 percent for 2016-17, is fairly reasonable target after all, in a year without fare hike and major freight increases.

Cleanliness and upgradation of passenger facilities and technology remains the basic Mantra of last two budgets. Besides, Railway projects have been defined on the basis of ‘Commissioning’, in place of ‘Completion’. I believe this policy-transformation is a paradigm shift in nation’s economy. The special arrangement of the ‘super-fast trains’ for the poor through launch of Antodaya Express and Deen-Dayalu rail coaches, reiterate the commitment of our government to the poor, Prabhu said.

Prabhu's hour-long speech in Parliament met with mixed political and social media reactions, getting both effusive praise and disparaging criticism. Not everyone was convinced with Prabhu's slew of new initiatives, including unreserved trains, WiFi in trains, provisions for children and senior citizens,” Prabhu said.

A detailed road-map in this direction has also been presented. Along with that an effort has been made to seek the co-operation of Passengers and the Railway Employees as well. Discipline in spending, efficiency in management and accountability to the consumer is the focus of this budget.

Prabha said optional travel insurance for rail journeys at the time of booking and clean my coach through SMS will be introduced in due course. High speed passenger corridor from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will be developed with the financial assistance from Government of Japan. FM Radio Stations will be invited to provide train borne entertainment, Rail Bandhu Mazagine will be provided in all reserved coaches in all regional languages.

Referring to the financial performance of 2015-16 the Railway Minister said stringent economy and austerity measures adopted to contain the Ordinary Working Expenses at Rs 1,10,690 crore, Rs 8,270 crore less than the original estimate of Rs 1,19,410 crore.

There is always craving for more as Railways touches the heart of the people across all sections of the society as it is a major source of transportation both for passengers and freight. But analysts could not agree more with Prabhu that the budget comes to be focused on consolidation rather than expansion to serve the long term interest of the Railways. Therefore the budget has focused on key issues plaguing the railways, which are customer experience, increasing efficiency, network decongestion, improving safety, improving stations, increasing revenues and increasing availability. It also gave a push to projects, which needed to be taken up on priority basis. It is a mature rail budget that balances much needed investments with the revenue and funding constraints. It has also pushed railway reforms.

Several steps have been taken to speed up contracting and execution of contracts, and construction companies are already seeing their order books grow. Private Freight Terminals are growing, and the award of Madhepura and Marhowra manufacturing projects, are signs of progress. However, the port connectivity projects, joint ventures with State Governments remain work-in-progress. That new project announcements are limited indicates adherence to implementation focus, highlighted in the previous Budget. Among the new announcements, Dedicated Freight Corridors are perhaps the most impactful, as they would contribute to India participating in global production networks in south east Asia, and to Make in India.

The proposed rationalisation of freight tariffs will be critical to improving financial health, and enabling investments. Railways have become less competitive than road even for 1200 – 1500 km distances for container movements. Coastal shipping and Inland waterways are also emerging as competition. A more pragmatic approach to freight, combining several measures like personalised service and bulk discounts, would be necessary.

The Rail Minister has done a fine job in setting achievable targets for FY17 keeping in mind the ground realities of the present times. His three-pronged approach of expansion of freight basket, rationalization of tariff structure and improvement and enhancement of terminal capacity. Setting up of logistics parks and warehouses under PPP mode will perfectly dovetail into this process The country’s first rail auto hub will soon come up in Walajabad, near Chennai, to help automobile manufacturers in the region transport vehicles to other parts of the country. This has been one of the long-standing demands of the auto industry. It will certainly kick-start the economy by putting in place necessary rail infrastructure. This augurs well as large projects have taken up, pushing up much needed public expenditure to revive growth. (IPA Service)