Dear Editor,
In a politically charged situation that is now prevailing in the country, the Railway Budget 2016-17, passed off as a low-key affair. While no fresh hike in passenger fares came as a relief, no worthwhile initiative was spelt out to improve the railways or to provide better services, despite the benefit of falling fuel costs.
The announcement of airplane-type features like on-board entertainment, apps and wi-fi services, can be implemented only in long-distance super-fast trains with state-of-the-art system. It is practically not possible to implement such ‘luxuries’ in worn-out and crowed trains. The success of the proposal for cleaning toilets through SMS requests is hard to visualise due to passenger congestion and dearth of cleaning staff. One laudable thing about the budget is that a porter or ‘coolie’ will now be called ‘Sahayak’.
G David Milton
via-e-mail
