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'Bihar special' railway budget or achche din for Konkan Railway, Mumbai debates

The speculation about what goodies railway minister Suresh Prabhu has for the hapless commuter reached fever pitch on Wednesday, with just about everybody with an opinion more than willing to wager his money on what would make it to chartered accountant-cum-banker-turned-politician Prabhu's first railway budget.

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Railway minister Suresh Prabhu gives final touches to the railway budget in Delhi on Wednesday
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The speculation about what goodies railway minister Suresh Prabhu has for the hapless commuter reached fever pitch on Wednesday, with just about everybody with an opinion more than willing to wager his money on what would make it to chartered accountant-cum-banker-turned-politician Prabhu's first railway budget.
dna gives a lowdown on some of the things a vast majority of these armchair budget-watchers believe might come true.

Would it be a 'Bihar special' budget?
It is something some officials believe could happen. With elections expected in Bihar later this year and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) up against two formidable foes, who were successful railway ministers in their own right — Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar — officials believe the budget might announce a slew of goodies for the state.
"In Bihar, thanks to having some of its top leaders as railway ministers at different points of time as well as being a state which sees heavy migration, the railways has been an important political issue. The BJP might want to score brownie points, so that its state leaders have something to talk about when elections come calling," said a senior railway official.

Achche din for Konkan Railway?
Just about no railway minister has been able to resist giving a bit extra to their 'home' railways. Officials don't expect Prabhu to be any different. Already having gone on an inauguration spree on KR since taking over, he is expected to announce the doubling of KR's track and its electrification.
KR has a Rs720-crore plan to electrify its 741km route between Roha and Thokur, which having been approved by the railway board last November, is set to be forwarded to the Planning Commission. KR has a Rs1,500-crore plan to double its tracks — currently, KR is a single-line route — over several stretches. The plan includes creating new stations, because KR has just 58 stations on its 741km route, which means the inter-station distance of around 15km is higher than the ideal 10km distance.

Falling fuel prices to save us from a fare hike?
This is a tricky one. Because the railways has been hiking fares to cover its diesel losses, called the Fuel Adjustment Charge, the fact that fares should come down in case of a fall in fuel prices is also logical.
In 2013, the railways had an energy bill of around Rs28,500 crore, of which diesel bills stood at Rs18,900 crore. This year, the bills might cross Rs35,000 crore, of which a whopping Rs24,000 crore will be for diesel.
"However, for cash-strapped railways, reducing fares might not be an option as the losses are very heavy. So, the prudent option might be to keep fares untouched and take the reduced fuel bills as replacement for a fare hike. Moreover, the premium train scheme — with fares going up according to demand — has been a hit and is bringing in extra revenue," said a senior official.

Maharashtra to gets its due?
It is after a long time that the railway minister is from the state. The relationship between the BJP and the Shiv Sena is getting increasingly frosty, despite the two running the state government together. The recent Land Acquisition Bill is another example of the two sparring.
"A situation where Prabhu does give Maharashtra some good projects will put the BJP on the backfoot among all the parties in the state, especially the Sena. That is something the BJP would want to avoid. So, the state might get some big-ticket projects," opined an official.

Mumbai gets something constructive?
For years now, the city has got cosmetic announcements, such as extra suburban services, which would go up anyway once Central Railway completes its direct current to alternating current conversion, or projects that take more than a year just for their feasibility studies to be completed.
"Hopefully, this year the Rs11,441 crore phase 3 of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project will be announced in the budget and a sizable fund will be allocated, so that work on it begins this year itself. If some of the projects that are part of phase 3 are completed by 2019, it will give BJP bragging rights by the time the next Lok Sabha or assembly elections are around," said the official.
There are also chances of chunks of money being allotted for the retrofitting of automatic sliding doors for local trains. CR estimates that it alone will require Rs600 crore to fit ASDs on all its local trains. WR would also require more than Rs400 crore for this work. Even the plan to raise platforms on the suburban network, currently being carried out by withdrawing money from revenue sub-heads like maintenance because of non-approval from the railway ministry, can be announced.

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