Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday criticised the Rail Budget presented by Minister for Railways DV Sadananda Gowda as the one that lacks vision.
He further said that it is not possible to fulfil all the promises Gowda made.
Terming the budget as "hopeless", Gandhi told journalists that Congress states were not given their due in the Rs 164,374 crore budget.
"Congress ruled states were ignored in this budget," Gandhi said.
Sparing passengers of any further fare hike, Railway Budget for 2014-15 proposes to attract private domestic and FDI in infrastructure projects and pursuing private-public partnership to boost the finances of the cash-strapped railways.
Having hiked fares to the tune of 14.2 percent recently, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, who presented the new government's first budget in Lok Sabha, said he plans to leverage railway PSU resources by bringing in their investible funds in infrastructure projects.
He announced plans to introduce a bullet train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector and setting up of a Diamond Quadrilateral network of high speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres. A sum of Rs 100 crore has been provided for initiating the project.
Increasing the speed of trains to 160 to 200 kms per hour on nine select sectors was another highlight of the budget, which proposes to allow all experimental stoppages to lapse after September this year.
