The 2013 rail budget likely to be the UPA government's last before the 2014 polls, looks set to steer clear of announcing any new projects a major departure from the past few rail budgets.

Saddled with hundreds of pending projects and mounting losses, the Railway Ministry will instead focus on completing prioritized works, particularly those near completion.

Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal railway minister said that with the ministry back with the Congress after almost 17 years, rather than a regional ally, the budget is also likely to be low on populism.

In a recent communication to general managers of 17 zonal railways, Mr Vinay Mittal chairman of Railway Board called for surgical intervention and a holistic and realistic review of the ongoing works. He also asked them to be highly pro active in prioritizing the ongoing works and sift out the works that are no longer necessary.

The communication said that works must be labeled in descending order of necessity, as (i) Extremely Essential, (ii) Desirable (iii) Not Required At Present while formulating the Annual Plan 2013-14.

Mr Mittal said that the zonal railways will be expected to propose no new works ordinarily. Sanction of new works should invariably be done through matching deletion of existing sanctions on which work has not commenced yet.

The Finance Directorate that deals with the preparation of the Rail Budget has also asked zonal railways to keep in mind constraints of resources.

Mr Jagmohan Gupta executive director of Railway Board's said that "Indian Railways has closed two successive years with deficits and a loan had to be taken at a high interest rate to cover the gap."