New Delhi, Feb. 26: Lalu Prasad rattled off figures today to show that safety was the railways’ “highest priority” but forgot to mention that predecessor Nitish Kumar had created the fund that is paying for it.

Replacement of 16,538km of overage track, repair of 2,251 bridges and change of old signals at 2,359 stations would be completed by the end of this year using the Special Railway Safety Fund, the railway minister announced.

What he did not say was the Rs 17,000cr fund was created by Nitish in 2001 and had lapsed in 2006. Because the railways under Lalu Prasad had missed the deadline, it was given a one-year extension.

Safety received only a passing mention in the budget speech, which saw the minister thump his chest over the surplus his department was earning. But if Lalu Prasad wants India to say “Chak De Railways”, he might have to do a little more than fill the kitty with crores.

“Earning profit is not the only business of railways. Their core activity is to run trains punctually, keeping the safety and security of passengers as topmost priority. Obsessed with showing a surplus and pandering to populism, Lalu Prasad seems to have relegated the core business to the background,” an officer in the railways’ safety directorate said.

Carrying additional loads on wagons and running new trains — 53 were announced today — on a saturated system were stretching it to dangerous limits, officials warned.

“Overloading of wagons has been legalised by Lalu Prasad to earn additional revenue. However, it is also causing accelerated deterioration of the infrastructure…. This is bound to cause extreme long-term damage,” a former railway board chairman said.

“Instead of starting new trains and investing in unprofitable and non-viable projects in Bihar, the minister would do better to improve the infrastructure and ensure that trains run a little faster. We are not talking about bullet trains but a reasonable speed averaging at least 120kmph.”

The fastest trains now are the Bhopal and Kanpur Shatabdis, doing 140kmph, well below the 160kmph that officials would be happy with.

The average speed of the showpiece trains — the Rajdhanis and the other Shatabdis — is just about 75kmph.

On the High Density Network that accounts for 20,000km of the total 66,000km of rail network, goods trains run at an average 20kmph and passenger trains at 55kmph.

“The High Density Network is saturated since more than 75 per cent of rail traffic moves on it. The railways should focus on enhancing the capacity and easing the congestion here,” the former chairman said.

The network is made up of the Golden Quadrilateral — Delhi-Mumbai-Howrah-Chennai — and its diagonals, as well as some port lines, including Visakhapatnam.

Lalu Prasad did mention the network, saying the railways had prepared a blueprint for developing it and that an investment of Rs 75,000 crore would be made over seven years to augment line capacity.

“But then, it is up to the next railway minister to shell out the money and reduce his surplus,” the railway officer quipped.