Railways will develop a national plan envisioning a long-term perspective to planning for augmenting the rail network in consultation with all stakeholders including state governments, public representatives and other relevant central ministries.
This was stated by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu after presenting the Rail Budget 2016-17.
"We have made the budget keeping the common people's interest in mind... We have tried to modernise the system, upgradation the safety measures," Prabhu told reporters outside Parliament.
Asserting that railways will continue to improve passenger amenities in future, he said, "For the first time, National Railway Plan will be made keeping the interest of the country."
The Minister blamed the previous railway administrations for the prevailing condition in the national transporter.
"The public transporters' financial condition is worrisome today because the way railways was managed in the past. So in order to come out of this situation, we have tried to address the issues," he said.
"The budget was prepared in such a condition when there were big challenges before us and which were beyond our control. The freight movement, pay commission burden, despite that we have tried to protect people's interests in the budget," Prabhu said.
The budget has been made keeping in mind the need of the future and also the present requirement.
Dwelling on financial problems, he said, "Finance Ministry has its own compulsions. Despite the constraints, we have increased the Plan size to Rs 1.21 lakh crore for the next fiscal. It will be spent on the capacity augmentation like doubling projects."
Referring to joint venture route adopted for executing rail projects, he said, "We have also joined hands with state governments to implement projects in respective states. It is a first Rail Budget where capacity augmentation is the main focus.
