Indian Railways Budget Speech 1999-2000 648 Speech of Shri
Indian Railways Budget Speech 1999-2000 Speech of Shri Nitish Kumar Introducing the Railway Budget for 1999-2000, on 25 th February 1999 Mr. Speaker Sir, I rise to present the Budget Estimates for 1999-2000 for the Indian Railways. Introduction 2. This government is about to complete one year in office. During this period, a "Status Paper" and "White Paper", have been placed before the Parliament, to help appreciate the financial position, shortage of resources and the various challenges and difficulties faced by Indian Railways. I am happy to report that on some of these issues, we have taken concrete steps as I shall presently explain in the speech. 3. The year 1998-99 has been a difficult one, not only for the Railways, but perhaps for the whole country. Our industrial and financial growth have been affected by the global financial crisis and various other difficulties, impacting the Railway system also. Freight loading has not been as per our expectations. On the other hand, expenditure has gone up considerably as a result of the Fifth Central Pay Commission's recommendations. Mr. Speaker, Sir, such circumstances would have discouraged any other organisation but I am happy to say that without being disheartened by such adverse situations, we succeeded in achieving many of our objectives. Notwithstanding the constraint of resources, we have enhanced passenger carrying capacity of trains by attaching two or more coaches in 100 popular trains. Thus, by adding 440 additional coaches, we generated carrying capacity of more than 29,000 passengers per day. Apart from this, 124 new trains were introduced, the run of 32 trains was extended and the frequency of 32 trains increased.
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