[dipu]

Speaking at a meeting of general managers and divisional managers, railways minister Sadananda Gowda on Thursday said the government is short of resources and some resource mobilisation should be a priority. The railways need significant investment to upgrade decaying tracks and signalling systems to prevent accidents. Modernisation and revamping of the railways is the top infrastructure priority of the government, which wants to build a Diamond Quadrilateral project of high-speed trains and a network of freight corridors over the next few years, all of which would require huge investments.

Defending the decision, railways said, "Passenger fare and freight rate revision was done as part of the interim budget presented by the previous government. But the implementation of revised rates was withdrawn by the previous regime because of the elections...Meeting the annual expenditure would not be possible unless the revised rates, as finalized by the previous government, are implemented," it said.