65,000 Additional
Berths and 17,000 Bio Toilets to be Installed
Operations Audit
to Improve Punctuality of trains Proposed
Wi Fi Facilities
in 400 more Stations
Stations to be Developed
Under PPP Mode
Award of Civil
Contracts for Dedicated Freight Corridor to be Over by the end of this
Financial Year
Capacity of E-Ticketing
System to be Enhanced
Increased Quota of
Lower Berth for Senior Citizens and Women
820 Robs / Rubs constructed
Operating
Ratio to Increase from 90% to 92% Proposed
Nargol- Hazira
Port Connectivity to be taken up under PPP Mode
There is no hike in
passenger fare in this year’s Railway Budget. Presenting the Railway Budget
2016-17 in the Parliament today Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu
said the budget seeks to fulfil the long-felt desires of the common man such
as reserved accommodation on trains available on demand, time tabled freight
trains, high end technology to improve safety record, elimination of all
unmanned level crossings, improved punctuality, higher average speed of freight
trains, semi high speed trains running along the golden quadrilateral, zero
direct discharge of human waste by the year 2020. He said Cabinet approval has
been received for re-development of stations under PPP mode.
Shri Suresh Prabhu
said the Indian Railways budget proposes to overcome challenges by
Reorganizing Restructuring and Rejuvenating Indian Railways with
the Slogan “Chalo, Milkar Kuch Naya Karen’”. The
strategy for this will have three pillars i.e. Nav Arjan – New
revenues, Nav Manak – New norms, and Nav Sanrachna
– New Structures.
In order to make
travel on Indian Railways more comfortable, the Indian Railways proposes to
give more facilities to the passengers . 65,000 additional berths will be
provided in the trains and 2500 water vending machines will be installed .
The railways have developed world’s first Bio-Vaccum toilet and 17,000
Bio-toilets will be provided in the trains. With the purpose of improving
punctuality of trains operations audit from Ghaziabad to Mughalsarai section
will be introduced. The Indian Railways proposes to introduce 1,780 Automatic
Ticket Vending Machines all over the country with mobile apps and GoIndia
smartcard for cashless purchase of UTS and PRS tickets. The capacity of
e-ticketing system will be enhanced from 2,000 tickets per minute to 7,200
tickets per minute to support 1,20,000 concurrent users as against 40,000
earlier. 400 more stations will be provided with Wi Fi facilities.
As a part of social
initiatives, online booking of wheelchairs and Braille enabled new coaches will
be introduced for the Divyang. Increased quota of lower berths for
senior citizens and women and reserving middle bays for women in reserved
coaches has been proposed. Passengers security will be enhanced through more
helplines and CCTVs.
To reduce accidents at
level crossings, the budget proposes to eliminate 1000 unmanned level crossings
and closures of 350 manned level crossings. 820 Rail Over Bridges (ROB)/ Rail
Under Bridges (RUB) will be completed during the current financial year and
work is going on in additional 1350 of them.
Referring to the
progress of Dedicated Freight Corridor Project the Railway Minister said that
almost all contracts for civil engineering works will be awarded by the end of
this financial year. He said Rs.24,000 crore worth contracts were awarded
since November 2014 as against Rs. 13,000 crore contracts awarded during the
last six years. Shri Prabhu said Railways proposes to take up North-South,
East-West and East Coast freight corridors through innovative financing
including PPP.
Underlining the
importance of Jammu and Kashmir and North East the Minister said work on
Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project is
progressing satisfactorily and 35 kms of tunnelling out of total of 95 kms has
been completed. He said decongestion work on Jalandhar - Jammu section is in
full swing and doubling of two bridges will be over by next month, while the
other two bridges will be completed by 2016-17. In North East , Mizoram and
Manipur will shortly come on BG map of the country with commissioning of the
Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge conversion projects.
Giving the progress
card of port connectivity projects the Minister informed that Tuna Port
connectivity project has been commissioned and rail connectivity projects to
ports of Jaigarh, Dighi, Rewas and Paradip are under implementation. He said implementation
of rail connectivity for the ports of Nargol and Hazira will be taken up under
PPP in 2016-17.
Referring to the
financial performance the Minister said during 2015-16 a saving of Rs.8720
crore could be achieved neutralizing the most of the revenue shortfall with
operating ratio of 90%. He said the budget proposes operating ratio of 92%, restricting
growth of ordinary working expenses by 11.6% after building in immediate impact
of 7th PC, reduction in diesel and electricity consumption and Revenue
generation of Rs. 1,84,820 crore for 2016-17. He said during 2015-16
investment would be close to double of average of previous five years.
Shri Suresh Prabhu
said Railways would be able to achieve annualized savings of Rs.3000 crore
in the energy sector during the next financial year itself, a year earlier than
announced. He said this could be achieved by procuring power directly at
competitive rates.
The Railway
Minister said social media will be used as a tool to bring in transparency.
All procurement including procurement of works will be moved to e-platform.
He said the trial of awarding tender electronically was successful and it
will be rolled out on Pan India basis in 2016-17.
Giving an outline of
the way ahead, the Minister informed Parliament that his Ministry proposes to
take various measures to improve quality of travel which will include
introduction of unreserved superfast Antyodaya Express Trains,
introduction of Tezas train with the speed of 130 Km. and above with
onboard entertainment and Wi Fi etc., unreserved Deen Dayalu coaches
with portable water and higher number of mobile charging points and introduction
of AC and non AC double decker trains on busy routes with the potential to increase
carrying capacity by almost 40%. Sale of tickets through hand held
terminals; e- ticketing facility to foreign debit/credit cards; bar coded
tickets, expansion of Vikalp – train on demand to provide
choice of accommodation in specific trains to wait-listed passengers. E-booking
of tickets facility on the concessional passes available to journalists; facility
of cancellation through the 139 helpline post verification using ‘One Time
Password’ sent on registered phone number, CCTV cameras on tatkal windows
and periodic audit of PRS website will also be introduced.
Shri Suresh Prabhu
said it is proposed to convert all operational halts into commercial halts for
the benefit of common man. The Minister said Sarathi Seva in Konkan Railway
will be expanding to help the old and disabled passenger. The existing
services for enabling passengers to book battery operated cars, porter
services, etc. on a paid basis in addition to the existing pick up and drop,
and wheel chair services will be strengthened. All stations under redevelopment
will be accessible for Divyang. There will be at least one Divyang
friendly toilet at each platform in A1 class stations during the next financial
year and availability of wheelchairs in sufficient numbers at these stations
will be ensured. Children’s menu items, baby foods, hot milk and hot water
would be made available under Janani Sewa.
SMART (Specially
Modified Aesthetic Refreshing Travel) Coaches will be introduced to
ensure higher carrying capacity and provision of new amenities including
automatic doors, bar-code readers, bio-vacuum toilets, water-level indicators,
accessible dustbins, ergonomic seating, improved aesthetics, vending machines,
entertainment screens, LED lit boards for advertising, PA system. It is also
proposed to integrate all
facilities into two mobile apps dealing with ticketing issues and for receipt
and redressal of complaints and suggestions. With a view to improve customer
interface information boards in trains enumerating the on-board services and
GPS based digital displays will be installed inside coaches to provide real
time information regarding upcoming halts. Work is underway for the installation
of a high-tech centralized network of 20,000 screens across 2000 stations for
enabling real time flow of information to passengers and also to unlock huge
advertising potential. All A1 class stations will be manned with duly empowered
Station Directors supported by cross functional teams, to make one person
accountable for all facilities on trains.
Shri Suresh Prabhu
said it is proposed to
take up on priority the provision of passenger amenities and beautification on
stations at pilgrimage centres including Ajmer, Amritsar, Bihar Sharif,
Chengannur, Dwarka, Gaya, Haridwar, Mathura, Nagapattinam, Nanded, Nasik, Pali,
Parasnath, Puri, Tirupati, Vailankanni, Varanasi and Vasco. Aastha circuit
trains will be introduced to connect important pilgrim centres.
He said
optional travel insurance for rail journeys at the time of booking and clean
my coach through sms will also be introduced in due course. High speed
passenger corridor from Ahmedabad to Mumbai will be developed with the
financial assistance from Government of Japan. FM Radio Stations will be
invited to provide train borne entertainment, Rail Bandhu Mazagine will be
provided in all reserved coaches in all regional languages.
Referring to the
financial performance of 2015-16 the Railway Minister said Stringent
economy and austerity measures adopted to contain the Ordinary Working Expenses
(O.W.E.) due to which budgeted
OWE of Rs 1,19,410 crore decreased in the Revised Estimates 2015-16 to Rs.
1,10,690 crore i.e. by Rs 8,720 crore. BE provided for
an appropriation of Rs. 34,900 crore to the Pension Fund. However, based on
trend, the pension outgo moderately decreased to Rs. 34,500 crore in RE.
Internal resource generation diminished and appropriation to DRF moderated to
Rs. 5,500 crore in RE from the BE 2015-16 provisioning of Rs. 7,900 crore. Excess
of receipts over expenditure in RE 2015-16 stands at Rs. 11,402.40 crore. Plan
size for 2015-16 is currently estimated at 1,00,000 crore i.e. the BE level.
Regarding Budget
Estimates 2016-17 the Minister informed that the Gross Traffic Receipts are kept
at Rs 1,84,820 crore . Passenger earnings growth has been pegged at 12.4 % and
earnings target budgeted at Rs. 51,012 crore. The freight traffic is pegged at
incremental traffic of 50 million tonnes, anticipating a healthier growth in
the core sector of economy. Goods earnings is accordingly proposed at Rs. 1,
17,933 crore. Other coaching and sundries projected at Rs. 6,185 crore and Rs.
9,590.3 crore respectively. OWE
provides for the implementation of the 7th CPC.Pension outgo
budgeted at Rs 45,500 crore in 2016-17. Higher staff cost and pension
liability impacts the internal resource position of the Railways. Accordingly,
appropriation to DRF from revenue placed at Rs 3,200 crore and that from
Production Units at Rs 200 crore. A withdrawal of Rs 3,160 crore from DRF on
net basis proposed though the gross expenditure to be met from DRF in the
Annual Plan estimated at Rs 7,160 crore. Rs 5,750 crore proposed to be appropriated
to the Capital fund. With a draw-down of Rs 1,250 crore from previous balances
in the fund, plan requirement of Rs 7,000 crore for repayment of principal
component of lease charges to IRFC have been met. Railways are preparing a
Plan size of Rs. 1,21,000 crore in 2016-17, the Minister added.
***
GG/Samir/sk