Hyderabad: It was only a couple of days ago that a senior leader of the ruling BJP at the Centre, Lakshmi Chawla from Punjab, had suggested to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, to bestow attention on improvement of facilities on the Railways and to solve the problems being faced by the passengers all over the country, rather than going in for Bullet Trains, which cost a whooping Rs.one lakh for each train, to be run between two cities.
Lakshmi Chawla traveled from Amritsar to Ayodhya on Sarayu-Yamuna Express, which ran 14 hours behind schedule. While traveling in the train, she produced a video, giving suggestions to Modi and Goyal, in which she clearly expressed her opposition to Bullet Trains, and said there was no response from the Railway Helpline number when she tried to contact the same. She said she had sent a mail to Piyush Goyal, but there was no response to it. In a message to Goyal, she said: ‘Mr Piyush, It is not traveling in a special bogey, when you want to go places. You better board a train like a common passenger. Then you will know the problems being faced by the passengers’. A Journalist of ‘The Print’ had posted the video produced by her in his twitter account also.
As against this advise, astonishingly enough, the new Railway Board Chairman, Vinod Kumar, who took charge on Wednesday, has declared that his top priority will be Bullet Trains between important cities, as part of high speed travel, apart from security of passengers and improved facilities to them on the trains.
In this context, it is pertinent to recall here that when the BJP-led NDA Government had presented it’s first Budget and Railway Budget in 2014, the then Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had announced the introduction of a Bullet Train in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, at a cost of Rs.60,000 crore for one train, there was criticism from not only the opposition parties but many other sections, that the Modi Government was pro-rich and it’s priorities are totally wrong and lopsided. At that time, the Railway Ministry had increased the passenger faces by 14.2 per cent at a stroke even before the Railway budget was presented, on the plea that the Ministry was facing severe financial crunch even after the steep hike in fares. .
It is to be noted that the Bullet Trains, at an exorbitant cost each, would serve the purpose of only the rich class and not the common man. While there is need for ensuring speedy travel and improved facilities for train passengers, one cannot but question the need for Bullet Trains and for whose sake they are meant. There are many areas in the Country which are having no train connectivity, and the Railways should focus on this aspect. When all the important cities are linked by airways, there seems to be absolutely no necessity for Bullet trains. Spending unusually huge amounts on these trains, when more than 75 per cent of the country’s population is faced with problems of poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, etc., is not at all necessary and justifiable, analysts feel. It is better for the Railway Board to change it’s priorities and think twice, thrice before concentrating on Bullet Trains.
By P.A. Rama Rao
