Local train commuters are guarded in their reaction on a day Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a bonanza for the expansion and upgradation of the suburban network which is used by around 80 lakh people daily.
In a first, the finance minister announced the expansion of the Mumbai suburban train network, spread over 465 km, at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore and said the government also planned to allocate Rs 40,000 crore for the city's rail network.
Railway commuters and activists are now hoping that the expansion and upgradation activities see the light of the day.
Railway activist Subhash Gupta feels that Jaitley rightly refrained from making populist announcements like rolling out new trains in the wake of a number of railway accidents last year.
He said the budget focussed more on improving the existing services and infrastructure.
"Instead of populist measures, railways will now be improvising its existing fleet and infrastructure which is the need of the hour," he said.
Gupta said the railways allocated such a huge amount for Mumbai as it has now realised the need to upgrade infrastructure.
"It's now up to railway officers to execute the projects in time," he said.
Jaitley announced that Mumbai's local train network will have 90 kms of double line tracks at a cost of over Rs 11,000 crore.
He also said that an additional suburban network, including elevated corridors on some sections, of 150 kms is also being planned at a cost of over Rs 40,000 crore.
Welcoming the budgetary provisions, Rajiv Singal, a former member of Railway's consultative committees in Central Railway and Western Railway, said Mumbai needed even more.
"During 2000-2014, railway network of this mega city was ignored completely. This is the good sigal that present government has tried to control the damage. Though, Rs 51,000 crore allocation is quite sufficient for one year, still I would want more money for Mumbai considering the fact that the city contributes 40 per cent of total revenue of the country through several channels of taxes," he said.
Railway activist Samir Zaveri, who presented a list of demands to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal earlier this month, welcomed the budgetary allocation and hoped that railway officials would do the rest of the job in time.
"I am extremely happy over budgetary allocation for the Mumbai as most of the demands on safety and security issues, which we presented to the railway minister, have been wisely addressed," Zaveri said.
However, Tejas Tambe, a daily commuter on Western Railway, is unimpressed.
"I don't understand the gimmick of budgetary allocation. All I know is that I am going to travel in same packed coaches like an animal. The lifeline of this city (local trains) has become a death-line as 11-12 people die everyday by falling off packed trains. Please stop this first and then talk about the budget's impact," he said.
Tomy, a resident of Kalyan and a daily commuter on Central Railway, said the big numbers does not matter but what is more important is the execution of pending projects.
Another Central Railway commuter Kapil Kelkar, a resident of Thane, said he was not enthused with the quantum of allocation made in the budget.
"I am more keen on execution of projects which are promised in the railway budget," he said.
A commuter on Harbour network on Panvel-CSMT route said that existing infrastructure should be upgraded and the old rakes should be dispensed with forthwith.
When asked what are projects that will get executed now, the spokespersons of the Central Railway and Western Railway said that nitti-gritty of the project details will be available only on February 5 when the Railway Board will issue the "pink book".
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