Passenger amenities top priority for Rail Minister

He said he wants to bring back the smile in the face of commuters permanently.

Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, who will present his maiden Railway Budget in a few hours, said he will also keep in mind the present generation of travellers and their needs.

Bullet trains and thrust on modernisation and safety will be his priority.

He said he is taking stock of realities and what can be done.

He said he is trying his level best based to enter into all areas in a short span of one month and act on the feedback in media.

"Media is focusing in the areas where real concern has to be taken care of," he said, adding that cleanliness, catering areas, etc will be attended to.

"We should find out the priorities and the national interest. It is not a state subject," he said in an interview to Doordarshan.

"Passenger amenities is one of the prime areas," he said, adding that the aim is to take the Railway forward despite financial constraints.

"Some ideas will be taken care of," he assured.

He said while cleanliness, catering and IT areas can be done quickly, some areas will take time and not be instant.

He said none of his predecessor took hard steps and tried popular things which did not do well in the long run.

Railway has incurred Rs 30,000 crore loss in the passenger segment while many mega projects are held up.

The government had already announced  pre-Budget hike of 14.2 percent in passenger fares and raised freight rate by 6.5 percent.recently.

This is the first steep hike in Railway fares in many years.