Ex-ministers pick holes in rail budget

Muniyappa saw a design to sell public sector units to private players in the garb of the PPP model of development by the government. In an apparent reference to the proposals vis-a-vis Gujarat (home state of the PM) and Karnataka (home state of the Railway Minister), he reminded Sadananda Gowda that he was not a minister for just the two states. He alleged that Modi did not provide land for setting up a coach factory in Gujarat when he was the CM.

Trivedi wondered if any private company would be interested in the construction of overbridges and underbridges and felt the proposed PPP model on this count was bound to fail. As for bullet trains, he wondered why a comparison with China was being attempted. He pointed out that the Chinese government “gives 160 billion US dollars to the railway but here the government gives only 10-12 billion US dollars”.

Trivedi sought to embarrass the BJP over the fare hike by extensively quoting from the statements made by Modi and BJP when he had, as minister, increased passenger fares ahead of the 2012 Budget. His party chief Mamata Banerjee had him removed as railway minister after Trivedi proposed a hike of 2 paise per km.

BJD member Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo called for a better privatisation by pointing out that instead of going in for bullet trains, which were set to cost Rs 150 crore per km, the speed of existing Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains needed being augmented.