Hyderabad: Loksatta Party on Tuesday welcomed the "genuine" effort showed by Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda in his Budget to "end the era of reckless populism and lay the foundation for improved traffic infrastructure".
Loksatta President Jayaprakash Narayan said the broad trajectory of the Rail Budget is in keeping with the NDA government's objective of accelerating economic growth and creating employment.
The emphasis on public-private partnership and private investments and the determination to make decisions based on commercial and viability considerations are welcome departures from ad hoc measures that punctuated the earlier regime for a decade, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said.
Welcoming the Minister's initiative to improve tracks and start high speed trains, Narayan maintained bullet trains will be expensive and unviable unless traffic density is very high and passengers are willing to pay steep fares.
"Against such a backdrop, it is pleasing to note that the Railway Minister is ready to pursue low-cost options after a survey by the Japanese".
He suggested that an independent statutory railway authority be created to maintain the track and signalling systems so that there can be a genuine competition between public and private train operators.
Describing the Narendra Modi government's first Rail Budget as realistic, Telangana BJP President G Kishan Reddy said it tried to do justice to all states.
The Budget has laid emphasis on ensuring passenger security by proposing to recruit nearly 18,000 police personnel, including women, he said.
"It requires Rs 6 lakh crore to fulfil the promises made by previous Government. Those projects may not be completed even in 40 years given the Railways' income. We are happy that Telangana has got two bullet trains," Reddy said.
Criticising the Budget, YSR Congress Party said the Centre has "failed" to incorporate the assurances it had given to the united Andhra Pradesh.
Senior party leader D A Somayajulu said though the Centre had made several promises to the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (ahead of bifurcation), none of them is reflected in the budget.
The Budget failed to generate any interest among the common public as the Centre had already raised the rail fares by 14.5 per cent, the AP Opposition party said.
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