ahmedabad in spite of the declining fortunes of the indian railways mamata banerjee has come out with a brave budget the plan outlay for investments is the highest ever at rs 60000 crore for 201112 this is expected to be financed through budgetary support market borrowings including a bond issue public private partnerships ppps and internal approvalsthere are no proposals for fare increases either for passengers or freight the freight part however cannot be taken seriously since fare increases do happen outside of the budget announcement the budget demonstrates a continued focus on passenger services since it provides an opportunity for populist announcementon the freight side the budget does mention about setting up of wagon manufacturing units and the completion of the dedicated freight corridor by december 2016 however freight terminals the much talked about logistics parks port connectivity etc do not find the required focus this is likely to affect gujarat since industrial investments as envisaged in vibrant gujarat are expected to rise significantly apart from the mention of the dedicated freight corridor the other projects influencing gujarat would be the extension of the container double stack service from gujarat to gurgaon beyond kanakpura in jaipur and the possible electrification of the congested ahmedabaddelhi route the urgent priority on this route would be for doubling which should be taken up notwithstanding the construction of the dedicated freight corridor in terms of railway links the patanbhildi connection is yet to be completed this will provide some relief to the ahmedabaddelhi line similarly the miyagamsamlaya conversion from narrow gauge to broad gauge will provide a route that could avoid vadodara the proposed bhavnagarmahuva and the somnathkodinar connections will enable a coastal line along the saurashtra coastin terms of ppps while the kutch railway corporation is doing well the pipavav railway corporation and bharuchdahej railway are not doing too well it is important for railways to examine the nature of the contracts if they wish ppps to succeed the same is the issue in terms of supporting the container train operators who are facing changing conditions imposed by the railways affecting their business modelon the passenger side there are a few new train concepts that would benefit gujarat these include the ac doubledecker service between ahmedabad and mumbai the duronto between pune and ahmedabad the prefeasibility study of the golden corridor between delhi and mumbai to increase the speed of passenger trains to 160200 kmph and the development of an integrated suburban railway network in ahmedabad the details of the last two however are not clear it may be useful for the government of gujarat to consider an entity that will envision promote and finance railway projects in gujaratthe writer is a professor at iima and was indian railways chair professor in rail transport and infrastructure management january 2008august 2010