Having hiked fares to the tune of 14.2 percent recently, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda who presented the new government’s first budget in Lok Sabha on Tuesday said he plans to leverage railway PSU resources by bringing in their investible funds in infrastructure projects.
He announced plans to introduce a bullet train in Mumbai- Ahmedabad sector and setting up of a Diamond Quadrilateral network of high speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres. A sum of Rs 100 crore has been provided for initiating the project.
Increasing the speed of trains to 160 to 200 kms per hour on nine select sectors was another highlight of the budget, which proposes to allow all experimental stoppages to lapse after September this year.
The Budget disclosed that traffic growth declined and expenditures went up in 2013-14 as compared to the revised estimates of previous financial year.
Gross traffic receipts stood at Rs 1,39,558 crore, short of revised estimates by Rs 942 crore over the previous year. The ordinary working expenses and pension outgo were also higher.
The budget estimates for 2014-15 assumes a freight loading 1101 metric tonnes, 51 metric tonnes more than the previous year, growth in passenger traffic at 2 percent and freight earnings at Rs 1,05,770 crore.
Passenger earnings will be Rs 44,645 crore after a revenue sacrifice of Rs 610 crore on account of monthly season ticket fares.
Total receipts for the current year have been pegged at Rs 1,64,374 crore and expenditure at Rs 1,49,176 crore.
Disclosing that he needs more than Rs nine lakh crore to completing the Golden Quadrilateral Network and Rs 60,000 crore for introducing one bullet train alone, Gowda told the House, “Can I depend only on hiking fare and freight rates and burden the public to realise these funds? This is unrealistic. I need to explore the alternate means of resource mobilisation.”
He proposed to launch a scheme to bring in investible surplus funds of railway PSUs in infrastructure projects which can generate attractive returns.
Proposing private investment in railways through domestic and FDI, Gowda said growth depends heavily on availability of funds for investment in rail infrastructure.
Internal revenue sources and government funding are insufficient to meet the requirement, the Railway Minister said, adding the ministry is seeking Cabinet approval for allowing FDI in rail sector.
FDI, however, will be limited to infrastructure development and not allowed in operations, he said.
He said the concept of PPP has not been successful in raising substantial resources for railways.
“It is my endeavour to pursue this in right earnest. It is our target that bulk of our future projects will be financed through PPP mode, including the high-speed rail, which requires huge investments.”
Apart from mobilising resources, Gowda said he needed to strategically manage other aspects of planning and administration by adopting a near-holiday approach, setting timelines for ongoing projects, strategic partnership and aggressive indigenisation of imported projects.
The annual plan for 2014-15 has been fixed at the highest ever outlay of Rs 65,445 crore with gross budgetary support at Rs 30,100 crore, Railway Safety Fund Rs 2,200 crore, internal resources Rs 15,350 crore, external market borrowing Rs 11,790 crore and EBR-PPP Rs 6,005 crore.
The budget provides higher funds for ongoing projects in North East, including 11 national projects. Rs 5,116 crore earmarked for projects in North East, which is 54 percent higher than the previous year.
While Udhampur-Katra rail link in Jammu and Kashmir has been dedicated to the nation, the focus will now be on completion of the missing link between Banihal and Katra.
18 new line surveys have been announced, which include rail connectivity to ‘char dham’ — Kedarnath, Badrinath, etc, and Shimoga-Sringeri-Mangalore.
Five Jansadharan trains are being introduced along with five premium trains, six AC express trains and 27 express trains and eight passenger trains.
The premium trains are between Mumbai Central and New Delhi, Shalimar-Chennai, Secundarabad-Hazrat Nizamuddin, Jaipur-Madurai and Kamakhya-Bangalore.
In order to strengthen security in trains and stations, the budget proposes to recruit 4000 women RPF constables. Already 17000 RPF constables have been recruited and shall be available for deployment shortly.
Gowda said safety of passengers is of paramount importance and it is estimated that over Rs 40,000 crore would be needed to be invested in track renewals, elimination of unmanned railway crossings and road overbridges and underbridges.
A provision of Rs 1,785 crore has been earmarked for railway overbridges and underbridges.
Outlining IT initiatives, the minister said the railway reservation system is being revamped to move into next generation E-ticketing system, which will support 7200 tickets per minutes to allow 1,20,000 simultaneous users.
Railways will move to paperless offices in five years, provide wi-fi services in A-1 and A category stations and in select trains, real-time tracking of trains and rolling stock, mobile-based wakeup call system for passengers and mobile- based destination arrival alert.
Following are the highlights of the Railway Budget 2014-15:
* No new increase in passenger fares and freight charges * Bullet train on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Sector
* Diamond quadrilateral for high speed trains
* Plan to hike speed of trains to 160-200 km/hr in 9 sectors
* Online booking to support 7,200 tickets/minute; to allow 1.2 lakh users log in simultaneously
* Reservation system to be revamped, ticket-booking through mobile phones, post offices to be popularized
* Online platform, unreserved tickets * Combo parking-platform tickets at stations
* Women RPF Constables to escort ladies coaches; 4,000 women constables to be inducted
* Retiring room facility to be extended to all stations
* Battery operated cars for differently abled and senior citizens at major stations
* Feedback services through IVRS on quality of food
* Food can be ordered through SMS, phone; Food courts at major stations
* Cleanliness budget up by 40 pc over last year
* CCTVs to be used at stations for monitoring cleanliness
* Setting up of corpus fund for stations’ upkeep; RO drinking water at stations and trains
* Automatic door closing in mainline and sub-urban coaches
* 58 new trains and extension of 11; 864 additional EMUs to be introduced in Mumbai over 2 years
* FDI in railway projects, except in operations.
* FDI, domestic investments in rail infrastructure
* Office-on-Wheels: Internet & Workstation facilities on select trains
* Wi-Fi in A-1, A category stations and in select trains
* Rail university for technical and non-technical subjects
* Some stations to be developed to international standards through PPP model
* Parcel traffic to be segregated to separate terminals to make passenger traffic unhindered
* Loss per passenger per kilometre up from 10p (in 2000-01) to 23p (2012-13)
* Solar energy to be tapped at major stations
* Highest ever plan outlay of Rs 65,455 crore for 2014-15
* Expenditure in 2014-15 pegged at Rs 149,176 crore.
58 New Trains to be Introduced 11 Existing Trains to be Extended
Railways proposes to introduce 58 new trans which includes five Jansadharan Trains, five Premium Trains, six AC Express Trains, 27 Express Trains, eight Passenger Trains, two MEMU services and five DEMU services this year.
Announcing this in Parliament today while presenting the rail budget, the Minister of Railways D. V. Sadananda Gowda also proposed to extend the run of 11 existing trains.
Gowda said these services would be meeting the demand surges which manifest themselves on special occasions.
He said that special trains would continue to run to meet the holiday and festival rush including services for Melmaruvathur, Velankanni, Jhalawar etc.
NEW TRAINS
Jansadharan Trains i) Ahmedabad–Darbhanga Jansadharan Express via Surat Ii Jaynagar–Mumbai Jansadharan Express ii) Mumbai–Gorakhpur Jansadharan Express iv) Saharasa–Anand Vihar Jansadharan Express via Motihari v) Saharasa–Amritsar Jansadharan Express
Premium Trains i) Mumbai Central–New Delhi Premium AC Express ii) Shalimar–Chennai Premium AC Express iii) Secunderabad-¬ Hazrat Nizamuddin Premium AC Express iv) Jaipur–Madurai Premium Express v) Kamakhya–Bengaluru Premium Express
Bullet Trains and Diamond Quadrilateral Network of High Speed Rail
The Minister of Railways D. V. Sadananda Gowda has said that Indian Railways is on its way to fulfill the long cherished dream to run a Bullet Train.
Presenting the Railway Budget 2014-15 in Parliament on Tuesday, he said, the Railways proposes bullet trains by starting off with an already identified Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector, where a number of studies have been done.
The Minster said, under the leadership of Narendra Modiji, the Railways is embarking on an ambitious plan to have a Diamond Quadrilateral Network of High Speed Rail, connecting major Metros and growth centers of the country.
A provision of Rs.100 crore has been made in the Budget for high Speed project to RVNL/HSRC (High Speed Rail Corridor) for taking further steps.
He said, while bullet trains would require completely new infrastructure, higher speed for existing trains will be achieved by upgrading the present network.
The Minister said, hence, an effort will be made to increase the speed of trains to 160-200 kmph in select sectors so as to significantly reduce travel time between major cities.
The Minister said, the identified sectors are:
i) Delhi-Agra
ii) Delhi-Chandigarh
iii) Delhi-Kanpur
iv) Nagpur-Bilaspur
v) Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai
vi) Mumbai-Goa
vii) Mumbai-Ahmedabad
viii) Chennai-Hyderabad
ix) Nagpur-Secunderabad.