Railway Interim Budget - 2009 (A review)

A Review of 2009 Railway Interim Budget
Railway Budget pulls the Stock Markets Up
Railway Budget has given postive push to the stock markets. Lalus budget has laid stress on infrastructure and technology upgradation and this has seen several stocks gaining points, particularly of those companies which manufacture goods used by the Railways. BSEs Sensex closed 155.62 points higher at 17,806.19. It reached a high of 17,860.10 and low of 17,678.74 . NSEs Nifty closed 50.35 points or 0.95 per cent higher at 5,250.35 after reaching a high of 5281.20 and low of 5200.80.

Nitin Fire (up 6.53 %), MIC Electronics (7.06 %), Bartronics (7.99 %) were amongst the top gainers in the smallcaps which would reap benefit from the budget. Jindal Stainless (7.19 %), Gateway Distriparks (6.28%) and Bharat Bijlee (5.11%) are the major gainers in the midcaps which would profit from the railway budget. Freight rate cut of 5% on petrol and diesel made oil marketing companies end firm.
IT Companies Cheer Up
Lalu’s endeavor to use technology for upgrading services of the Railways has made the software industry happy. However the IT initiatives announced in the Rail Budget would not really impact the top five companies in this sector much, as they are more dependent on overseas contracts. Smaller IT companies would gain more from the policies of Lalu.
Tickets through Mobile Phones
Mobile Phone holders, Cheer Up. Courtesy to Lalu you can get your tickets via your mobile phones. He has also increased number of UTS counters to 15000 and Automatic Ticket Vending Machine counters to 6000. He aims to provide employment to thousands of unemployed youth besides ensuring easy availability of railway tickets. He also announced extension of e-ticketing to wait-listed passengers.

* Lalu presents interim Railway budget
* This is UPA's last rail budget in its term
* Railways has a Rs 90,000 cr profit
* Rs 10,500 cr allocated for pension requirements
* 6th Pay Commission to hike expense by Rs 13,500 cr
* Steep fall in container traffic
* Work on Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor started
* Rlys to invest Rs 35,900 cr in 2009
* Railway connectivity to Kashmir initiated
* Passenger growth up 14 pct
* Passenger trains to have 22 pct more capacity
* Efficiency of passenger and goods wagons to be hiked
* Goods trains to have 78 pct added capacity
* 4 Railways inquiry call centers set up
* Electrification of 1000 km of rail lines completed
* Wagon production to be hiked from 6600 to 15000
* Railways invested Rs 70,000 cr out of surplus
* Railways to invest Rs 2,30,000 cr in 11th plan
* Railways reported Rs 25,000 cr cash surplus last year
* Revenues have risen by 39 paise a tonne/km since 2001
* Costs have fallen by 7 paise a tonne/km since 2001
* Gaps in the network will be bridged: Lalu
* Railways got loans at 4 pct
* Accidents come down from 325 in 03-04 to 194 in 07-08
* Railways has grown freight at the rate of 8 pct over last 5 yrs
* Research on for bullet trains
* FY10 operating ratio seen at 88%
* Mumbai-Bikaner superfast bi-weekly
* Nizamuddin-Bangalore Rajdhani tri-weekly
* Lalu gives 2 pct cut in AC and mail train fares
* Forty-three new trains announced
* Laid 1100 kms of new rail lines
* Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani becomes 4 days a week
* New Delhi-Ahmedabad Rajdhani becomes daily