Rail Budget: Why Mumbai should not have high hopes

A suburban train network that ferries 75 lakh people every day cannot and will not be softpedalled by railway minister PK Bansal in his budget presentation tomorrow But if Mumbaikars are anticipating a wagonload of goodies in the coming days then reality check is called for The cashstrapped railways is looking at ways to scale down expenditure and increase revenues even at the cost of dropping a few popularity points as it showed by hiking passenger fares last month So development projects in the city already progressing at snailrsquos pace may face further impediments Both Western and Central Railway had incurred losses of up to Rs 800 crore in their suburban network till January 2013 Rush hour Thousands of Western Railway commuters throng the Churchgate station during peak hour Railways sources have blamed the flagging speed of vital developmental project work on the red tape in the planning and implementation processes dearth of funds and neverending discussions between the state government and the organisation ldquoOverall advancement of projects many announced in last yearrsquos budget speech is meandering along though some work has begun on the ground The recent fare hike hardly made a difference as diesel prices were upped soon afterrdquo said a senior railway official on condition of anonymity Sources claim that for a long time the organisation didnrsquot have funds to pay private contractors who were executing several ventures on its behalf In the rail budget of 201213 CR got around Rs 1925 crore while WR received Rs 1845 crore This also includes the funds allotted for spending on the suburban system which is paltry for a metropolis like Mumbai This year too the city shouldnrsquot get its hopes up as the government hasnrsquot done much to get the railways out of the financial mess and back on track Sources say around Rs 1000 crore may be apportioned for Mumbai Urban Transport ProjectII MUTPII and some other assignments Railways had sought budgetary support of Rs 38000 crore from the central government which instead approved only Rs 26000 crore This has forced the rail ministry to rationalise its outlay to Rs 51000 crore Interestingly WR earns Rs 170 crore and CR Rs 23 crore from Mumbaikars daily which goes into the railwaysrsquo kitty At a time when statistics plainly exemplify the partisanship suffered by Mumbaikars railway officials too feel that an independentfunding mechanism should be mulled for projects in the city ldquoThere is an urgent need for extricating Mumbai from the present structure and creation of a disparate arrangement that will take care of providing worldclass amenities like airconditioned toilets escalators for FOBs and sufficient parking and drivein space for people coming to the train stations hererdquo said another railway official adding ldquoTill such a body is not created progress of projects will continue to hangrdquo Projects in limbo gtgt ChurchgateVirar Elevated Rail Corridor There is not much of movement on this Rs 21000crore project though chief minister Prithviraj Chavan recently agreed to its implementation Disputes between the state and railways spanning several months have delayed the State Support Agreement SSA in turn putting off private consortiums from partaking in the development of the 63km rail corridor which is likely to have 26 stations There have been several changes in the basic blueprint and plans gtgt CSTPanvel Fast Corridor Another multicrore project same fate Discussions and deliberations followed by presentations before railway board and state have been plenty However the going has been slow Although farebox has been prepared for this Rs 15000crore corridor no one is being able to guess on when the project will actually begin on the ground gtgt 12car trains on Harbour line The rail budget of 201213 had made provision for a deposit amount of Rs 357 crore for this project that is expected to help over 10 lakh people daily The number of coaches will go up by 33 per cent when compared to the present 9car trains Sadly teething troubles in the engineering department have ensured that only minor work has commenced at a few stations gtgt Fifth and sixth lines between Kurla and Parel CR was initially to add two additional lines till CST but a few months ago it decided to terminate the route at Parel due to lack of space further south This Rs 700crore project has been pending despite several new deadlines A new terminus is on the anvil at Parel as part of the same project gtgt Sixth line between Borivli and Mumbai Central This venture too has been more or less a nonstarter with only basic work being carried out Currently WR is constructing new railway quarters near Bandra Terminus after which it will demolish those buildings that are in the way of the proposed line Work on the fifth line on the same route is nearing completionu00a0