IR Budget

Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi presented his budget where in he proposed to raise rail fares across all classes. Safety as recommended by the

Anil Kakodkar Committee was the main focus area. The budget, as many did say, was very bold. The financial health of Indian Railways has not

been very good since over the past decade there has not been any increase in fares. On the other hand, costs have gone up significantly.


Indian Railways has become a toy in the hands of the politicians that they use for their own benefit. During last one decade, there has been

mushroom growth of new passenger trains on an already insufficient rail infrastructure in the country. During last five years, addition of more

than five hundred new trains, increasing the frequency of trains and adding more coaches per train has left Indian Railways in a tight spot.

Today, IR needs spare capacity. Such a massive addition of passenger trains every year without any serious thought, mainly on political

consideration, has severe implications on safety preparedness of railways. Further, neither any system or mechanism exists to evaluate safety

risk of such uncoordinated measures nor has any effort been undertaken to ameliorate the worsening conditions created by such an act.