LOGISTICS
RAILWAY BUDGET
Push for goods, shove for passengers
THE restructuring of the Railways received a fresh impetus on Tuesday, with the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, going the whole hog in rebalancing tariffs even at the cost of pinching the pockets of millions of ordinary commuters and raising ...
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Thrust on capacity expansion, security
The following is the text of the speech of the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, in Parliament on February 26: Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise to present the Budget Estimates for 2002-2003 for the Indian Railways. The year 2002-2003 will ...
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Rlys focus shifting from bulk transporter to logistics aide
THE Railway Budget for 2002-03 is a pointer to the fact that the Indian Railways is slowly trying to have its role recast from transporter of bulk items between two points into a provider of logistics services. There has been no ...
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Good, yet far from re-inventing itself
THIS RAILWAY Budget is a significant improvement over the previous editions, though when benchmarked with what it ought to have been — that is, a radical step towards `reinventing' the behemoth — it is found wanting. The Indian ...
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Back on the right track?
MR NITISH Kumar has done it at last! In his own inimitable way he has laid down the ground rules for taking up new projects and in the process put the brakes on the financial profligacy that has marked the Railway Budget of his predecessors ...
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Sleeper travellers to be squeezed most
WHAT is the extent of the increase in fares that Mr Nitish Kumar has imposed on passengers in the 2002-03 Rail Budget? An answer to this is not all that straightforward, given the rather complicated `tariff re-balancing' exercise undertaken by ...
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Bold, businesslike and balanced
THE Railways could have something to look up to in the near future, as the Rail Budget presented by Mr Nitish Kumar seems to have been a balanced exercise in bringing the system back on rails at a time when its finances remained precariously ...
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Nitish back on old borrowing track
THE Railways Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, has decided not to factor in any private sector investment to finance the Railways' budgeted Plan size of Rs 12,330 crore for the coming fiscal. His predecessor, Ms Mamata Banerjee, had placed major ...
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Season ticket fares rationalised
SUBURBAN railway commuters in the metros of Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will have to pay more for travelling shorter distances and less for longer distances following the rationalisation in the monthly season ticket fares announced by the Railway ...
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Steel industry hit by hike in key input costs
THE Railway Budget provisions are being seen as a mixed bag for the steel industry, which is already in trouble. While the increase in freight tariff for major inputs like iron ore, coal and limestone proposed in the Budget has hit the steel ...
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SEBs will have to shell out more for fuel
THE State electricity boards, which are struggling to stay afloat, will now have to bear the burden of an additional fuel bill of close to Rs 250 crore in the 2002-03 fiscal due to the rise in coal freight costs by 0.83 per cent. This estimate ...
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Mixed reaction from steel cos
THE hike in transport costs for key inputs used in steel manufacture, courtesy the Railway Budget, will have varied impact on leading steel companies. "This budget continues to use the administrative mechanism to push up the cost of steel ...
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Coal cos fear loss of long-distance consumers
THE state-owned coal companies and bulk coal consumers in the core and non-core sectors are upset with the Railway Minister's proposal to increase the coal freight by 0.83 per cent over the existing rates up to a distance of 700 km. The ...
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Cement prices may stay firm
THE domestic construction industry and retail consumers of cement may well have to reconcile to prices staying firm, although the haulage of cement over distances will be reduced marginally by the Railways. Cement manufacturers have indicated ...
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An attempt to avoid beaten track: Ex-Rail Board chief
While the Minister's announcement that any project would be taken up only after obtaining clearances from all the departments concerned was definitely welcome, there was no mention as to what would be done with the large shelf of pending projects.
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Nitish gets thumbs-up from industry captains
INDUSTRY has welcomed the move towards rationalisation of railway tariffs and other measures announced in the Railway Budget 2002-03. The President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Mr Sanjiv Goenka, stated that the move ...
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Need to procure more wagons: Texmaco chief
MR Ramesh Maheswari, President, Texmaco, has emphasised the need for substantial enhancement of wagon procurement by the Railways. "It is common knowledge that the Railway fleet is fast ageing and the wagon fleet depleting, with the number of ...
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Fewer freight slabs welcomed
`In the right direction'
`Onus on States to grab projects'
Reform-oriented budget, says Cochin chamber
INTERVIEW
`Common man's Budget'
AFTER presenting what is being proclaimed as a bold reformist Railway Budget, the Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, sought to brush aside criticism that the measures announced by him would hit the common man hard. In an exclusive interview to ...
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AIRLINES
Cargo hubs must to raise throughput, says report
The sub-group on the civil aviation sector has in a report to the Planning Commission said that the operators had difficulty in operating cargo charters to India because of the directional imbalance. "This can be tackled if we had a cargo hub where t he transit cargo could be processed."
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SHIPPING
Gangavaram project: 7 cos shortlisted
ANDHRA Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd (APIIC), the nodal agency selected by the Andhra Pradesh Government for developing the Gangavaram port project at Visakhapatnam through private participation, has shortlisted seven out of ...
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Ships in Ports
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