Fare Hike Moderate: Deve Gowda

Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda yesterday defended the hike in passenger fares and freight rates proposed in the Railway Budget as moderate. Pointing out that the hike was aimed at resource mobilisation for improving infrastructure, Gowda called upon the people to support the government in its endeavour to improve the crucial infrastructure sector.

The Prime Minister said that the government had done its best to introduce several new railway projects and the people have to share the burden. He was talking to journalists in his chamber in Parliament House after the presentation of the 1997-98 Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Gowda said the governments thrust was on improving infrastructural facilities like railways, highways and airways to ensure overall economic growth in the country. Keeping this objective in mind, the Union cabinet has decided to relax guidelines to provide infrastructural facilities in the north-eastern and backward states as well as Jammu & Kashmir, he added. Even if there is no proper return on investment, the cabinet has cleared these projects only with the objective that once infrastructure is created, there will be possibilities of attracting investment, said Gowda.

The Prime Minister said the government needed more than Rs 10,000 crore to complete its sanctioned projects. As part of its resource mobilisation drive, the government had floated railway bonds to generate Rs 3,000 crore from the market.