Amid increasing concern over financial health and rising operating cost,Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to table a white paper on the actual condition of the PSU on December 21,the last day of the winter session of Parliament. She will also present 'Vision 2010' document,spelling out railways various plan of action for the coming decades. The tabling of the white paper comes at a time when the PSU behemoth is being confronted with a steady rise in operating cost,which according to senior railway officials has crossed over 100 per cent today,meaning the ministry is spending more than it is earning. Implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission is being attributed for the failing financial health of the PSU. Banerjee in her budget speech had promised to come out with a white paper in the face of growing clamour from the opposition who cast doubt over her predecessor Lalu Prasad's claim of turning around the railway's fortune with a surplus of Rs 90,000 crore in his tenure. The white paper is expected to throw light on the actual financial position of railways and how the organization plans to fund various projects in the coming decades. Sources have already indicated "that the white paper will have certain basic data on railways' operational and financial condition." That things are not quite well for the railways is evident from the fact that several zones have already decided to go in for major cuts in expenditure across various departments. Sources said even implementation of various safety related plans and programmes is coming in the way "due to lack of funds." The minister has herself admitted that "There was no money to install anti-collission device," a critical technology to prevent collission on track. While Lalu Prasad had put the surplus funds with the Railways at Rs 90,000 crore,Banerjee had said that a corpus of Rs 8,361 crore remained after expenditure of Rs 13,600 crore on account of Pay Commission award last year and Rs 2,600 crore this year. The vision document may contain railways ambitious high speed corridor project connecting commercial hubs with bullet trains in certain routes across the country. World class stations,auto hubs and cold storage chains,logistic parks,automation and complete computerisation of railways are some of the projects likely to find mention in 'Vision 2010'. Besides,extension of railway network to hilly and backward regions overcoming shortage of coaches are also expected in the document.
