(Article) Indian Railway Budget 2010-11 (No Increase in the Passenger Fares) | Aspirants Times

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Aspirants Times: Indian Railway Budget 2010-11 (No Increase in the Passenger Fares)

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has  presented the Rail Budget in the Parliament on Feb 24,2010 . According to budget draft there will be no increase in the passenger fares of any class or category of trains. Freight tariffs will also remain the same for 2010-11.

Railway has proposed INR 41,426 crore, the highest ever plan investment to provide efficient, customer focused and modern railway network. Out of this allocation, INR 4,411 crore has been proposed to achieve the target of 1,000 kilometers for new lines and INR 1,302 crore for passenger amenities. The Plan would be financed through gross budgetary support of INR 15,875 crore, Diesel Cess of INR 877 crore, internal resources of INR 14,523 crore and EBR of INR 10,151 crore including market borrowing through IRFC of INR 9,120 crore.

Railway is committed to take up socially desirably projects connecting backward areas of the country. Surveys for 114 projects for such areas will be updated and surveys for 55 new lines will be taken up during the year. 800 kilometer Gauge Conversion and 700 kilometers of doubling the rail line will be achieved during the year besides a number of new projects on cost sharing with state governments or through PPP route.

Target has been set to add 25,000 kilometers of new lines in next 10 years.

In order to bring more transparency in freight business, the Railway Minister announced RFID technology will be introduced for tracking of wagons, allotment of the rakes would be accessible through the web.
In order to upgrade railway infrastructure, the Minister said that a centre for Railway Research will be set up at IIT, Kharagpur for research in key areas of railway technology and a state-of-the art advanced loco pilot training centre at Kharagpur and an advanced railway track training centre at Beleghata.

To overcome of the shortage of coaches, new coach factories are being set up at Rae Bareilly, Kancharapara and Palakkad. A wagon repair shop will be set up at Badnera and a new Rail Axle Factory will be set up at New Jalpaiguri through PPP or Joint Venture mode. Besides 5 state-of-the-art wagon factories also through joint venture and PPP mode at Sikandrabad, Barddhaman, Bhubneshwar/Kalahandi, Guwahati and Haldia.

Proposing several new initiatives for freight business, the Minister said that Railways will introduce a modified wagon investment scheme for high capacity general purpose and special purpose wagons for carrying iron ore, coal and cement. A scheme to run special freight train by private operators for commodities such as automobiles, vegetable oil, molasses, chemicals and petrochemicals will be notified.
Reiterating Railways’ commitment for time bound completion of dedicated corridors, the Minister said preliminary Engineering-cum-Traffic Surveys for North-South, East-West, East-South and South-South corridors will be taken up this year. She also said that Railways is also working on high speed passenger rail corridors, a National High Speed Rail Authority will be set up for planning, standard setting and implementing these projects.

In order to promote industrial activity, Kumari Mamata Banerjee said that Railways would welcome investment through PPP mode for providing rail connectivity to important ports. Additional 2,000 kilometers routes will be electrified within two years.

Vision 2020

Following the Rs 14,00,000 crore investment requirement estimated in the Vision 2020 document for the next 10 years, the railway budget needs to contain out-of-the-box measures for raising revenues on a much larger scale than hitherto. Roughly, the required annual investment to meet this target is 3.5 times the highest amount of Rs 40,000 crore allocated in 2009-2010. Of the total, 64% or Rs 8, 96,000 crore is to come from internal resources, supported by prudent borrowing and PPP initiatives. And around 36% or Rs 5, 00,000 crore is to come from the general revenues.

The figures are mind-boggling: the annual budgetary support has to increase over three-fold from around Rs 9,000 crore in 2008-09, to Rs 28,000 crore; internal resources have to go up over three-fold from Rs 28,000 crore to Rs 92,000 crore; revenues need to be boosted three-fold from around Rs 90,000 crore to Rs 2,70,000 crore; and IR’s share in the GDP should rise to 3%. A number three syndrome all round!

All these necessitate Indian Railways (IR) tackling a few crucial issues on priority. The first of them is raising additional revenues through fare collections. Now there is heavy cross-subsidisation of coaching services (passenger and allied services) by the freight services. These social obligations, which stood at Rs 4,875 crore in 2000-01, are expected to settle at Rs13,958 in 2008-09. Since IR closes the annual operations with a profit, it is obvious that the bulk of the social service burden is borne by the freight service

And the rail users in the freight sector have been complaining, rightly, about this overcharging. It also has an impact on inflationary pressures, since higher freight charges inevitably get passed on to the consumers. Even on the basis of the not-too-scientific costing procedures of IR, not more than 70% of the cost is recovered from passenger services, while it is over 125% from freight services. A 10 to 15% increase in the basic fare for second class, wi th proportionate adjustments for other classes needs to be considered. To meet corporate social responsibility, suitable concessions, targeted at deserving groups can be built in. If small revisions in the passenger fares are not made annually, a stage may be reached when it becomes impossible to bridge the gap between cost and recovery.

Highlights of Railway Budget 2010-11

» No fare hike for passengers. 
» Railways not to be privatised; It will remain with the government, says Banerjee. While not privatising, Railways have to develop business models for improving earnings, says Banerjee. 
» Railways 2020 vision document will contain short, medium and long-term goals. Commitments fulfilled to the maximum. Out of 120 trains announced in last budget, only three remain to be flagged off because of lack of broad-gauge lines, says Banerjee. 
» Plans to launch a pilot project for fire detection.The government also plans to construct more underpasses for safety, the minister said while presenting the Railway Budget.
» Railways to start six water bottling plants in places like Ambala, Thiruvananthapuram, Farakka, Amethi and Nasik to provide clean and cheap drinking water to passengers. 
» Indian Railways aims to add 25,000 route kilometers by 2020. The railways currently has 64,015 route kilometers, she said.
» India's railways has set up a special task force to clear investment proposals in 100 days
» Indian Railways plans to keep rail freight rates unchanged, Bloomberg-UTV news channel reported, without saying where it got the information.
» Railways to set up mobile e-ticketing centres at hospitals, universities, courts, IITs, IIMs, district headquarters and village panchayats. All 13,000 unmanned level crossings to be manned in the next five years. 
» Railway Protection Force to be strengthened through amendments in RPF Act; women's wing to be formed in RPF to ensure security of women. Ex-servicemen to be inducted in RPF. Railways will be the lead partner in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. 
» Railways to set up Rabindra Museum in Howrah and Geetanjali Museum in Bolpur -- both in West Bengal -- tocommemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 125th birth anniversary.
» Railways will provide houses to all its employees in the next 10 years in collaboration with the Urban Development ministry. 
» Railways to enhance contribution to central staff benefit fund. Centre for Railway Research to be set up at IIT-Kharagpur. Chittaranjan Locomotive Works capacity to be augmented from 200 to 275 engines a year.
» Work on Rae Bareli Coach Factory in Uttar Pradesh to start within a year. Wagon Repair Shop to be set up in Badnera near Amravati in Maharashtra.
» Integral Coach Factory in Chennai to be modernised and a new unit to be set up there. If land is available, Railways willing to set up a Diesel Multiple Unit factory in West Bengal. 
» No forcible acquisition of land for freight corridor project. One member of each family of land losers to be given employment in the freight corridor as also in the new projects. 
» High-speed dedicated passenger corridors to be constructed; National High Speed Rail Authority to be set up. 
» Revenue from non-core business of Railways to go up from Rs 150 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. Indian Railways has set a target to transport 944 million tons of goods in the year beginning April 1. 
» Railways expects to increase earnings from non core activities. The government aims to increase non core earnings to Rs10 billion rupees from Rs1.5 billion. 
» Railways expects to increase earnings from non core activities. The government aims to increase non core earnings to Rs10 billion rupees from Rs1.5 billion. 
» Despite slowdown, Railways to exceed freight loading target by eight million tonnes during 2009-10. Freight loading target for 2010-11 fixed at 944 million tonnes, 54 million tonnes more than the current year's revised target. Gross traffic receipt for 2010-11 pegged at Rs94,765 crore. 
» Allocation for construction of new lines increased from Rs2848 crore to Rs 4411 crore. 
» Rs1,302 crore provided for passenger amenities in the 2010-11 railway budget against Rs 923 crore last year. 
» Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC)will borrow 91.2 billion rupees ($1.97 billion) from the market in 2010-11. 
» Railways to have master plan for North Eastern region. Special train between India and Bangladesh to be started to commemorate 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. 
» 101 additional services to start on Mumbai suburban railways. Survey will be conducted to connect Sealdah and Howrah stations in West Bengal. To commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary, 'Bharat Teertha' trains to connect several pilgrimage centres across the country. 
» Indian Railway Finance Corporation will borrow Rs91.2 billion ($1.97 billion) from the market in 2010-11.

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