Railway minister DV Sadananda Gowda has presented Railway Budget 2014-15 today. Increased passenger amenities, more safety measures, timely completion of projects and increased financial discipline are the main highlights of the Railway Budget.
''Indian Railway Budget this year is definitely a significant departure from the past in terms of focus on passenger amenities, adoption of technology, capacity building and commercial soundness. Focus on passenger amenities gets a significant boost compared to the past and the facilities hereto available at airports only will be now be available at the railway stations. The introduction of bullet trains, high speed trains, upgradation of IT infrastructure including next generation e-reservation system are the steps in the right direction and addresses the long felt need of modernizing the Indian Railways and making it customer friendly,'' said Arvind Mahajan, Partner and Head of Infrastructure and Government Services, KPMG in India.
Arvind Mahajan, continued, ''We also welcome the steps for creation of Project management Unit at Railway Board, Railway University, Strategic procurement policy including-procurement towards capacity building and long term robustness of IR operations. While there was discussion on PPP and FDI in IR, the budget speech lacked details and the announcements in the coming weeks will be important to understand the specifics.''
''Having said that it is the step in right direction and it will be to the benefit of nation at large that these steps are implemented sooner. What we missed was any discussion on Railway Tariff Authority as it is critical for attractive private investment in Indian railways. Overall, the Railway Minister did touch upon key aspects and has shown the intent to turnaround IR into a commercially viable and customer friendly organization but the specifics of few announcements are awaited,'' he added.
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