After presenting the Railway Budget for 2003-04 to Parliament, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar addressed a group of journalists. Pradeep Puri reports
Has the Railway Budget not proposed any increase in passenger fares and freight because of the drop in traffic?
The thrust of the Railway Budget has been to attract more passenger and goods traffic by continuing the rationalisation of fares and freight. The current year (2002-03) has seen less passenger and goods traffic because of the cumulative effect of the safety surcharge imposed in 2001-02 and the fare rationalisation this year, which pushed up fares and freight. However, this will not be the case in 2003-04. The effort is to attract more traffic by providing maximum consumer satisfaction. This is why we have declared 2003-04 as
