Prabhu's Budget Fails to Impress Mumbai Commuters

Mumbai: The suburban commuters forming a sizable chunk of the overall daily passenger traffic of the Railways had mixed views on Suresh Prabhu's maiden Rail Budget on Thursday, with some feeling that he turned his back on his home city.

While many lauded the Railway Minister for the forthrightness, the absence of big announcements for the city remained a disappointment among the people.

"The good thing is that there has been no fare increase, but there are no new announcements for Mumbai either," said Dattatreya Godbole of Suburban Rail Passengers Association.

Shailendra Goyal, former member of National Railway Users Consultative Council, said announcements like AC local trains are old.

"Prabhu is from Mumbai and we had a lot of expectations from him, but we feel he has abandoned us in spite of being aware of the woes of millions of commuters," he said.

However, president of Yatri Sangh Mumbai Subhash Gupta said the suburban rail users will benefit a lot from customer-centric steps like redevelopment of stations and facilities for 'differently-abled' and senior citizens.

The announcement to proceed ahead with the third phase of the Mumbai urban transport project is also very important and it would fulfil many demands of the passengers, he said.

Mr Prabhu also deserves credit for not falling prey to the temptation of making big announcements, Mr Gupta added.