Jessop, Texmaco hail rail budget

Indian Railways’ performance is commendable on all counts and is an outstanding success story in the midst of the all-pervasive economic gloom and the down-turn in most industrial sectors.

The massive cash surplus of Rs.90,000 cr built by the Railways over the past 5 years will sustain the massive rail expansion and modernization programme, said Ramesh Maheshwari, President & CEO of Texmaco in Kolkata.

The proposed outlay of Rs.2,30,000 cr in the 11th 5 year plan (3 times more than that of the 10th plan) will be a major boost to large sections of industry involved in serving Railways, he felt. The wagon industry certainly stands to reap a rich harvest from the huge investment in the Rail Sector, he added.

However, the proposed take-over of certain sick wagon units by the Indian Railways is a rather retrograde step and a disincentive to operational efficiency through competition, he warned. Pawan K Ruia, Chairman of Ruia Group which own Jessop, said, "Announcement of an investment programme of Rs 230,000 crore is good in very difficult times. Wagons with higher capacity are the need of the day.”

Ruia added, “The Railway Minister's sustained focus in this area will serve the Indian economy and will benefit the wagon manufacturing industry. Plans announced for increasing the efficiency of both passenger and goods traffic along with capacity augmentation of the trains will make definite contribution toward achieving the growth targets before the nation."