Rail Minister meets PM ahead of Budget

Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here and discussed broad contours of the Rail Budget for 2013-14.

Bansal, accompanied by senior Railway Ministry officials, spent about half-an-hour with the Prime Minister and discussed modalities of the Budget besides measures to mobilise more resources for the Railways to fund its new projects.

Sources close to the Railway Minister termed the meeting as "routine" ahead of the Railway Budget.

The Minister will present the Rail Budget in Parliament on February 26.

Earlier during the day, Bansal met Finance Minister P Chidambaram with whom he is understood to have discussed the financial implication of the diesel price hike for Railways.

Bansal did not rule out another hike in railway fares, saying a view on it will be firmed up in the next few days. The recent hike in diesel prices will put an additional burden of Rs 3,300 crore on the Railways.

"We have to form our view on this (increasing rail fare) within next few days. We are working on it," Bansal said after meeting Chidambaram when asked about chances of a fare hike.

The Railways, which is facing a loss of Rs 25,000 crore in the passenger segment, had increased passenger fares of all categories by 21 percent on December 22 last year.

The fare hike will help Railways garner an additional revenue of Rs 6,600 crore annually, a majority of which will now go towards meeting the diesel expenses.