Modi's stamp visible in Rail Budget

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s first full-fledged Rail Budget presented in the Lok Sabha on Thursday carried imprints of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making railways the engine of country’s development.

This is an aspect he had highlighted in last year’s parliamentary poll speeches.
In his 9,100-word speech, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu made several announcements of schemes to realise the promises made by Modi in the run-up to the elections.
Among them were setting up railway research centres in select universities, as well as a Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya chair at IIT-BHU to prepare futuristic roadmaps for this sector. A full-fledged university to study the various facets of the railways, announced in the interim budget, is expected to be ready this year.

In a campaign speech in Delhi, Modi had said the railways was neglected for long despite having a large network.

“We have a huge rail network, but it is our misfortune that no attention is paid to the railways in the country. The change Japan’s rail system has undergone, it deserves applause. That change occurred because Japan introduced the concept of bullet trains. China also followed that concept. We have such a long rail network, but we are not thinking about its modernisation,” he had told the gathering.

He had pushed the idea of new rail universities which would work as centres for engineering innovation.

The ministry has also started to fulfil another campaign promise: providing better rail connectivity to the North-East.

Modi had, a week ago, flagged off the first ever train from Naharlagun to New Delhi, described as a gift to the people of Arunachal Pradesh.

Modi on Thursday congratulated Prabhu for resisting the temptation to announce populist measures, and appreciated attempts to bring in “financial discipline”.

“So far the expectations from the rail budget were confined to queries: How many coaches would increase? How many AC coaches would increase? And, how many new trains would ply? This budget aims at investing Rs 8 lakh crore without increasing fares, which speaks of honest and firm intention,” he said. 

The prime minister also took to Twitter to express his views: "RailBudget2015 is a forward looking, futuristic & passenger centric budget, combining a clear vision & a definite plan to achieve it (sic)”.

Prabhu, a former Shiv Sena member and chartered accountant by profession, began his budget speech on Thursday noon expressing personal gratitude to Modi for giving him the opportunity to “serve the people of India through the medium of railways, which is a priority”.

“The prime minister established the principle of governance when he asked what the government was for if not the welfare of the poor. He challenged us with an inspirational objective when he said the age of poverty alleviation was over and the era of poverty elimination had begun. The Indian Railways will play its part in this historic mission,” said Prabhu.

Modi had hand-picked Prabhu as railway minister to replace D V Sadanand Gowda, who had presented the interim budget.