The city is fortunate in many ways. So many things could go worse, but they haven’t. Here's a letter to the Railway Minister from a Mumbaikar.

Dear Railway Minister, I belong to Mumbai and like all Mumbaikars I am in a hurry. So I will refrain from talking in circles and come to the point straight.

There are several ways one could die in Mumbai. The agents of death are many: bombs, viruses in the air, druggies happy to wield knives, drunkards mixing drinking and driving, security guards lusting after female occupants of flats and so on. We have learnt to accept premature loss of human lives as a fact of life in the busy, overcrowded city. And there’s a word we have agreed upon to explain it away: accident. I understand you cannot do much about ‘accidents’. These are too unpredictable.

However, there’s something I would like you to keep in mind while preparing the Railway budget. I don’t want to die on a Mumbai local or at the platform while alighting a train or boarding one. This is one ‘accident’ you could help avert.

Dear Sir, please visit Kurla or Dadar stations or any station on the Western line between 8.30am and 10am and between 5pm and 9pm and judge the situation for yourself. Mumbaikars are incredibly hardy people. They have learnt to take the mess in their stride and survive the daily commute. They have to. No railway minister has tried to improve things for them.

But people die too. The other day, at the Kurla station a gentleman I was vaguely familiar with – aren’t they all vaguely familiar at platforms? – slipped on the tracks and was reduced to a mangle of raw flesh and bones by a local entering the station within seconds. The elderly man was unable to withstand the pressure of people jostling to jump into the train even before it had stopped. He was carrying a few toys with him and some dry fruits. Obviously, he had kids waiting at home.

I don’t want to be mushy about the incident. But I don’t want to die like that either. When I move out of home to my workplace, I realise I have to pass through a minefield of risks. I would like you to reduce one. If you are sincere you could help. The to-do list is simple. Have more trains during the peak hours, make trains more airy, take steps to decongest the platforms and modernise railway stations. It isn’t a tall ask. Is it?

Dear minister, Mumbai’s local trains are the city’s lifeline. Take them out, the city comes to a standstill. In my nine-year stay here, I have not seen platforms or stations getting better. And it always the same suffocating crowd on the trains. Slabs come crashing down from concrete roofs at the stations once in a while. Of course, there’s the issue of safety we have not touched. Travel on some trains after 11pm, you will realise how easy it is to molest a woman or snatch necklaces or bully passengers. The city is fortunate in many ways. So many things could go worse, but they haven’t.

It’s obvious that not much effort has gone into changing the commuters’ life. Your predecessors have not done much. I hope you would be different.

While presenting the Rail Budget 2013, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today not only sought more financial support by highlighting the importance of a financially sustainable Indian Railways, but also hinted at costlier rail fares by pointing out that passenger and freight rates need to help provide for the growth of the railways.

Committing to improving the financial health of the Railways, Bansal also highlighted his short-comings.

Even while the the number of passengers has increased from 8,000 in 2001 to over 12,000 in 2012, losses continue to mounting due to scarcity of resources and thin spread of funds, said Bansal.  According to his estimates, losses to the railways on account of passenger traffic are likely to rise to Rs 24,600 crore in 2012-2013 from Rs  22,500 crore in 2011-12.

“Losses on passenger services increased from Rs 4955 cr in 2001 to Rs 22500 cr in 2011-12 and it is expected to be Rs 24600 cr in 2012-13.”

The Indian Railways had targeted to mop up an additional revenue of Rs 6,600 crore for the current financial year (2012-13), but the fuel price hike wiped out Rs 3,300 crore of it.

“Plans are not being funded in a time-bound manner,” he said, adding that “the target for expanding the railway network needs to be higher”.

The Railways plans to raise Rs 95,000 crore in the next four years of the 12th Five-Year Plan.

While the government’s budgetary support amounted to Rs 1.94 lakh crore, the Railways plans to raise an additional Rs 1 lakh crore through Public Private Partnership.

Promising austere measures, he said the operating ratio for the current year is estimated at 88 percent from the current 95 percent. This means that for every Rs 88 spent, he gets Rs 100 back, which is a 12 percent profit.  And even while passenger fare earnings for the current year are lower than expected; net revenue will come down by Rs 6,000 crore, said Bansal. The  Freight income is  expected at Rs 89976 crore for FY14 since freight charges have been hiked by 5 percent effective from April 2013.

Expecting a budgetary support of Rs 20,000 crore for 2013-2014, he said Railways will mobile Rs 600 crore via PPP investments and Rs 15,000 crore via market borrowing.

But rather than monetising land for commercial development, he allocated Rs 1,000 crore each for railway land development authority and railway station development authority.

And even though Bansal did not raise passenger fares, he proposed a fuel charge for freight and an additional charge for super fast trains.

BlackBerry Z10 has much improved features and specifications and has plans to be launched with a great bang. It is said to have a 4.2 inch touch screen and gives a resolution of 768x1280 pixels. The latest Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP enabled that allows you to share files with a better and faster speed. You can capture smiles with its 8MP rear camera and it also features a 2MP secondary camera. Capture good videos and self portraits with this 2MP front camera. With EDGE, Wi-Fi, NFC, LTE, 3G enabled in this phone connectivity will be on the top. This is not it, this phone sports a huge internal memory of 16GB and you can further expand it upto 64GB. To run this phone well it has been supported by an 1800 mAh Battery that keeps you on always.

General Features

• SIM Single SIM( Micro SIM)
• Processor Dual Core 1.5 GHz
• Dual core Yes
• OS Blackberry 10 OS
• Display screen 4.2 inch
• Touch screen Capacitive touch screen with WXGA resolution
• Resolution pixels 1280x768 pixels with 16M colors
• RAM 2 GB
• Internal Memory 16 GB
• Micro SD Yes
• 2G, 3G, 4G Yes, Yes, Yes
• Wi-Fi Yes
• NFC Yes
• Bluetooth Yes, 4.0
• Micro USB Yes
• GPS Yes
• HDMI Yes
• Radio Yes
• Jack Yes, 3.5 mm
• Rear camera 8 mega pixel
• Flash Yes, LED Flash with 1080p video recording
• Front camera Yes, 2 mega pixel with 720p video recording
• Sensors Yes, Accelerometer, Magnetic, proximity, Gyro
• Battery capacity 1800 mAh
• Talk time 10 hours
• Standby 13 hours

Available from 06.03.2013
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Warranty : 1 Year Handset

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I think India is not known to move mountains. Rich and poor, educated and illiterate, that the Indians all converge in temples and churches and mosques to offer their fate is divine. Nowhere is this is referred to as Siddhi Vinayak, a temple dedicated to Ganesh, the elephant-headed God luck. It ‘a good omen Tuesday, the tail is long coil faithful over 2 km. People stand for several hours, to offer flowers and coconut, waiting for a two minute “Darshan” or meeting with the Lord. The divine path is never easy, but it is said that those who tread is always true devotion to their wishes fulfilled.