What is the basic thrust of the Budget?
The basic thrust of the Budget is to attract more and more freight and passenger traffic, and customer satisfaction. The process of rationalisation of freight and passenger traffic, which was initiated in the last Budget, has been taken forward this year. The main idea behind this approach is to increase the share of Railways in the overall transport sector. Why has the passenger traffic lagged behind target? Despite the fare rationalisation carried out last year, the growth in passenger traffic has fallen by three per cent. This is mainly in the segments such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains which are witnessing strong competition from airlines. As one of the steps to improve this slackness in passenger traffic, we have decided to experiment with flexible fares on Rajdhani trains. An off-season discount policy will be introduced on a pilot basis for two months from July 15 to September 15 this year for AC First Class and AC Second Class Rajdhani travellers. How do you propose to make f
