The Poll bound Maharashtra got the largest share in Railway Budget presented in Lok Sabha yesterday by Minister DV Sadananda Gowda. Close to 15 new Trains have been announced which would originate in the state, in addition to 10 new trains which would pass through the state. The much hyped Bullet Trains would also ply on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Route. Mumbai would also be one of the pillars of Golden Quadrilateral project of high speed trains linking four metropolitan cities of India.
The Government also put announced its plans to provide 864 new state-of-the-art electric multiple unit (EMU) trains over the next two years to Maharashtra. The budget proposed foot-over bridges, escalators and lifts at all major stations. Besides, a few sectors in Maharashtra will be considered for enhancing train speeds from 160-200 km per hour, which would help augment the number of services and reduce travel time.
Surveys for constructing new lines will be taken up on the Aurangabad-Chalisgaon sector, Solapur-Tuljapur in the Marathwada region.
The Centre also plans to survey the Bhusaval-Badnera-Wardha and Itarsi-Bhusawal (for a third line), Kasara-Igatpuri and Karjat-Lonavala (fourth line).
List of New Trains introduced in the Budget.
Jansadharan Trains
- Jaynagar–Mumbai Jansadharan Express
- Mumbai–Gorakhpur Jansadharan Express
Premium Trains
- Mumbai Central–New Delhi Premium AC Express
- Jaipur–Madurai Premium Express
- Kamakhya–Bengaluru Premium Express
AC Express Trains
- Nagpur–Pune(Weekly)
- Nagpur–Amritsar(Weekly)
- Nizamuddin–Pune(Weekly)
Express Trains
- Bandra(T)–Jaipur Express(Weekly)Via Nagda,Kota
- Bidar–Mumbai Express(Weekly)
- Hapa–Bilaspur Express(Weekly) via Nagpur
- Hazur Saheb Nanded–Bikaner Express(Weekly)
- Lokmanya Tilak(T)–Azamgarh Express(Weekly)
- Mumbai Kazipeth Express(Weekly) via Balharshah
- Mumbai Palitana Express(Weekly)
Reactions
However, the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra criticized the Railway Budget for virtually ignoring the plight of Mumbaikars as well as the people of the state.
“Railway Budget disappointed Maharashtra,” Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan tweeted soon after the NDA government’s maiden budget was tabled in parliament.
Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar found the budget disappointing for the people of the city and the state.
“People had a lot of expectations. The Shiv Sena and BJP leaders had made tall promises and assurances. However, they don’t reflect in the budget,” he said.
Chavan said the budget failed to address the specific issues of Maharashtra and left everybody “unimpressed”.
He said the needs of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project were also not addressed.
The MUTP project includes the crucial Churchgate-Virar elevated corridor and a similar plan for Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus-Kalyan, both pending with the Centre.
“Last month’s partial rollback of tariff hike was temporary. The budget indicates that there would be a hike in three months… during the regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the disinvestment procedure was started… this budget will continue the same,” state NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said.
NCP state spokesman Nawab Malik alleged that under the garb of PPP and FDI, the Centre was proposing to privatise the railways which would end recruitments and lead to unemployment.
State Congress president Manikrao Thakre alleged that Maharashtra was ignored as the people strongly protested last month’s steep tariff hike.
“This budget is very disappointing for Mumbai, as there is practically nothing when so many huge projects are pending,” said Rail Parishad president Bipin Gandhi.
“The only concrete announcement is that Mumbai will get 864 additional state-of-the-art EMUs over the next couple of years. It appears Mumbaikars are being virtually punished for opposing the recent hike in suburban fares,” he said.
However, supporting the budget, BJP leader Kirit Somaiya said the proposals have to be viewed in totality and those who commented against it do not seem to have read the full budget.