Populist rly schemes unlikely in next budget

Ahead of completing one year in office, railways minister Suresh Prabhu indicated on Wednesday that he would continue focus on the “structural reforms” plan for the public transporter and refrain from the usual populist announcements such as the launch of new trains or big ticket projects in next year’s rail budget.

“Rail budgets ought to provide the policy and financial outlines, instead of being an exercise in the launch of new trains or projects,” Prabhu said in an interaction with mediapersons.

Saying that rail infrastructure development would boost the country’s economy, Prabhu referred to his recent meetings with global investors in Singapore and London, saying that the global interest in India’s rail sector was phenomenal. “The rail sector in India is being scaled up and the results will start to show shortly,” he said.

On his reforms plan, the railways minister said that an independent regulator – which would supervise tariff, efficiency and PPP issues – was on the anvil. “A draft law to bring in the regulator has been prepared and will be brought shortly for parliamentary approval,” he said.

Speaking about his multipronged approach to tackle the “legacy issues” such as the long list of pending projects, Prabhu spoke about his initiatives to firm up Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with state governments to take up faster implementation of projects.

Later in the day, the railways minister presided over a function of the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Railways and the Odisha government for facilitating rail projects in the state.