Railways budget impossible to practically implement: Kharge

Former union minister for railways Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday termed the railway budget presented in Parliament as 'imaginary', and alleged that the proposal has ideas which would be 'impossible' to implement.

"This is an imaginary budget. They haven't mentioned how much money is going to be spent by the government, or how much the deficit is. They haven't even given an estimate as far as the expenditure is concerned," Kharge told the media.

"The budget is merely full of ideas and will be impossible to practically implement. Their proposal will be completely dependent on the PPP mode. There is no new trend which will be in favour of the people," he added.

Earlier, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presented his maiden budget, and stated that the sector has to undergo a transformation over the next five years.

He said the proposed investment in railways will be Rs. 8,56,020 crores by 2019.

The thrust of the Railways is to become a prime mover of the economy once again, act as a resource mobilisation for higher investments, decongestion of heavy haul routes and speeding up of trains, emphasis on gauge conversion, doubling, tripling and electrification.

Raising the 'Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat' slogan, Prabhu said professional agencies will be engaged for cleanliness. There will be e-catering to select meals from an array of choices and passenger can order food through IRCTC website at the time of booking of tickets in the coming days.

For the safety of women passengers, surveillance cameras would be provided on a pilot basis in selected mainline coaches and ladies compartments without compromising on privacy and SMS alert service would be introduced to inform passengers in advance about the updated arrival and departure timings of the trains.

The minister also announced about Wi-Fi to be provided at B category stations.