Friday, February 25 2005 11:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Railway budget for 2005-06, to be presented in Parliament tomorrow (Feb 26, 2005) may leave second class and suburban fares untouched, but effect a modest hike in upper class with certain sops for frequent and those travelling during the lean period.

Sleeper class, second-class, sub-urban passengers on Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will feel the imprint of Railway Minister Laloo Prasad, who has been maintaining that there should be no increase in their fare, Rail Bhawan sources said.

However, the Minister may go in for modest hike in upper class air-conditioned fares with a couple of sops like special concessional fare during the lean season, July-August-September and a frequent traveller scheme. The frequent traveller scheme is akin to air travel where travellers after earning certain points will get a free ticket in a bid to attract passengers for the upper classes.

In view of the fact that Railway Minister has demanded Rs 5,000 crore additional budgetary support to support its integrated modernisation plan and the Planning Commission having not agreeing to that, a gap of Rs 2,000 crore is likely to be covered up in three ways - hiking passenger fare and freight, market borrowings and levying a cess. These suggestions were made during the various meetings Railway Ministry had with Prime Minister's Office, Finance Ministry and Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission has indicated a hike in the budgetary support to the tune of Rs 1,500 crores, while railways were poised to earn Rs 1,500 crores in excess of the budgetary target.

The railways wanted Government to provide budgetary support saying it had an outgo of Rs 5,735 crores to meet the social cost. But the Government is understood to have made it clear any social cost incurred by railways has to be met through its resources.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has cleared five more projects for the Railways, which would be announced by the Railway Minister during his budget presentation.

Though, it was not known as to what the projects were, but going by the earlier announcements of the Railway Minister it may include an axle plant at his Lok Sabha Constituency Chhapra and a railway sleeper plant at Madhepura in Bihar.

Railway Minister is likely to announce two long-distance trains between Delhi and Howrah and Delhi and Chennai with speed of upto 150 km per hour, as also to launch four freight trains at a speed of 100 kms per hour on high-density routes connecting the four Metros.

Meanwhile, the much-hyped dedicated high speed "bullet train" with 250-300 kms per hour between Mumbai and Ahmedabad has been shelved for now in view of its high cost of the order of Rs 35,000 for just 500 kms, which the Government sources said was not too feasible in a country like India.