Rail Budget aspires for better service, speed and safety, tweeted PM Narendra Modi.
Safety, speed, services. These, according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are the main thrust areas of the first rail budget presented by his government today. (
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Railways, the Prime Minister told reporters after the presentation of the rail budget, have been handicapped by "piece-meal" thinking. "Decision-making was compartmentalized. It is for the first time a wholistic approach has been adopted. Railways cannot be run on ad-hocism,'' he said, taking a critical view of the Rail Budgets presented in the past 10 years under the UPA rule. (
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The Rail Budget, Mr Modi pointed out, has given a push to "institutional mechanism." (
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"The measures announced in the budget," he said, "will give an impetus to transparency and integrity, and reduce corruption. There will be an expansion of the rail network, while ensuring its development. They will ensure that the number of passengers using the network increases, along with their security.''
Describing railways as "the growth-engine of India's development," he argued that the budget will kick-start a process of modernization. "The initiatives show which way the railways, and through it, the country, is moving,'' the Prime Minister said.
He summed up these initiatives by using a popular Hindi proverb:
Der Aaye, Doorust Aaye (Better late, than never).