| With Railway Minister Lalu Prasad rolling out an innovative budget, it is for Railway Board Chairman JP Batra and his team to give effect to the minister's vision.
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| What are the steps taken in this budget to attract more passengers?
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| Attracting additional passengers to railways will be the key to revenue growth for us. We expect to mop up an additional revenue of Rs 1,000-2,000 crore from the Re 1 cut in the second-class fare announced by our minister in his rail budget speech.
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| Apart from generating additional revenues, this is expected to increase our freight-loading capacity. The reduction in fares for air-conditioned class, coupled with steps to clean up railway stations, will drive passengers to us.
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| The minister has announced introduction of high-speed trains. What steps are you taking to implement this at the earliest?
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| The pre-feasibility study for high-speed trains will be taken during the 11th Plan period. We are in talks with a number of state governments. Four high-speed corridors will be built with public-private partnership (PPP).
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| At first, the study will be done for a total distance of 2,800 kilometres with active participation of the interested state governments. The project should be completed in the next five years.
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| What benefits will these trains bring to the passengers?
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| These corridors will have trains running at 250-300 kilometres per hour. For passengers, travelling will become faster and cheaper. We are hoping to price the tickets at Rs 4 per kilometre, which will be much less than the low-cost airlines between shorter destinations.
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| How do you account for an improved 79 per cent operating ratio recorded by the railways in the current fiscal?
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| This has been possible due to the efficiency of railway personnel and better train timings. The railways are looking at a 78 per cent operating ratio at the end of 2007-08 and I believe we will achieve it.
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| What are the other public-private partnership initiatives being undertaken by the railways?
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| With the help of the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), the railway ministry will run luxury trains. In fact, the Rajasthan government has shown an interest in running a second ‘Palace on Wheels’ in collaboration with us.
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| Apart from this, the governments of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have expressed a keen interest in running luxury trains. Construction of more budget hotels and modernisation of railway stations will also be taken up through public-private partnership initiatives. |
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