Kolkata:
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to present her fifth Railway Budget today amid concerns over poor progress of large projects and the financial health of the world's second largest rail network.
Watching the Rail Budget with special interest will be West Bengal. The state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his political rival Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee have made Railways one of the major polls issues for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
After becoming the Rail Minister in May 2009, Mamata Banerjee has given Bengal 90 new trains. She has also laid the foundation stones for 16 factories in the state including an EMD Loco Factory at Dankuni near Singur, a rail coach factory at Kanchrapara and a wagon component factory at Jellingham near Nandigram. These factories hold promises of jobs for many in the state. But while officially work is in progress here, on the ground, there has been little or none.
Dismissing Mamata's promises for jobs, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said, "Don't wait for the Railways to give you jobs. So many foundations stones have been laid. It will take considerable time to remove them. There will never be any factory."
One reason for the slow progress of these factories is the poor financial health of the Railways. It is cash-strapped with expenses up, earnings down, a net deficit of Rs 2,500 crore and reserves at its lowest in recent years at Rs 5000 crore.
The only way out is increasing passenger fares, but that is unlikely to happen with Mamata eyeing to use Railways to win votes in Bengal.
So where will the money for those 16 factories come from? It'll certainly be a Catch-22 situation for the Trinamool leader when she places her Budget in the Lok Sabha today.
How Bengal has benefitted from Mamata's Rail Budgets since 2009:
Watching the Rail Budget with special interest will be West Bengal. The state Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his political rival Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee have made Railways one of the major polls issues for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
After becoming the Rail Minister in May 2009, Mamata Banerjee has given Bengal 90 new trains. She has also laid the foundation stones for 16 factories in the state including an EMD Loco Factory at Dankuni near Singur, a rail coach factory at Kanchrapara and a wagon component factory at Jellingham near Nandigram. These factories hold promises of jobs for many in the state. But while officially work is in progress here, on the ground, there has been little or none.
Dismissing Mamata's promises for jobs, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said, "Don't wait for the Railways to give you jobs. So many foundations stones have been laid. It will take considerable time to remove them. There will never be any factory."
One reason for the slow progress of these factories is the poor financial health of the Railways. It is cash-strapped with expenses up, earnings down, a net deficit of Rs 2,500 crore and reserves at its lowest in recent years at Rs 5000 crore.
The only way out is increasing passenger fares, but that is unlikely to happen with Mamata eyeing to use Railways to win votes in Bengal.
So where will the money for those 16 factories come from? It'll certainly be a Catch-22 situation for the Trinamool leader when she places her Budget in the Lok Sabha today.
How Bengal has benefitted from Mamata's Rail Budgets since 2009:
- 90 new trains
- 60 new reservation centres
- 10 new metro rail projects
- 16 new rail factories founded
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