Bureaucrat-turned-politician and Lok Satta Party founder Jayaprakash Narayan on Thursday hailed the 2015-16 Railway Budget as the best railway Budget in the past 20-25 years.
"In contrast to the traditional political practice of announcing new trains and hundreds of projects that would be held up for lack of funds, the Railway Budget presented in Lok Sabha on Thursday was prepared with a long term perspective and strategy," Narayan said in a statement here.
"The Budget has rightly identified that the government resources are limited and it came up with a strategy to use the strengths of railway for the country's long term interest," he said.
The Railway Minister made an effort to involve state governments, cities and private sector in the endeavour, he said.
The effort to improve the passenger facilities, step up their safety and the effort to enhance the capacity of railways without causing additional burden on passengers and freight carriage is appreciable, Narayan said.
Observing that the share of Railways in freight carriage came down to 20 percent, he said the Budget has made an attempt to increase the share up to 40 percent.
Noting that the challenges before Railways would not be solved in a day, Narayan suggested that the same path be followed in the coming five years without resorting to short term measures.
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