Year End
Review
The
year 2005 has been significant for the Railways in achieving goals and targets
with regard to the following:
Revenue Generation
The
total approximate earnings of Indian Railways on originating basis during the
period 1st April 2005 to 30th November 2005 were Rs. 34364.03 crores
compared to Rs. 30020.78 crores during the corresponding period last year,
marking an increase of 14.47%. The total earnings were 4.82% more than the
Budget target of Rs. 32784.98 crores. The total goods earnings of Rs. 22798.99 crores have shown an
increase of 17.39% during the period of April-November 2005 over Rs. 19421.42
crores for the corresponding period last year, registering an increase of 5.99%
over the Budget target of Rs. 21509.50
crores for the same period. The total passenger revenue earnings on originating
basis during this period were Rs.10197.92 crores with an increase of 8.95% over
Rs. 9359.82 crores during the same period last year. The total passenger
revenue earnings were 2.80% more than the Budget target of Rs. 9920.03 crores
for the same period.
Railways’
operating ratio now stands at 91% and its Fund Balances have improved
from Rs. 350 crores in the year 2002-03 to a level of around Rs. 7800 crores
till the first half of the current fiscal and likely to go up to more than Rs.
10,000 crores by the end of the current financial year.
Freight Operations Information System
Monitoring
of trains is done through ‘Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) which
has reduced the transit time. The Turn Around Time of wagons has been
reduced from 7 days to a target of 5.5 days by reducing the time taken in
loading/unloading and transit.
Railways have reduced the per unit cost of freight transportation by
registering a historic 13% growth in freight loading volume during the first
half of this fiscal.
Increased
Connectivity
The Indian Railways have embarked upon an ambitious
plan to develop dedicated freight corridors including additional
corridors for freight traffic. On these freight corridors, higher axle load
wagon and double stack containers will operate. This will not only improve the
quality of rail freight services but also reduce the cost of rail
transportation significantly. Railways have already planned for dedicated freight
corridors on Delhi – Howrah and Delhi – Mumbai routes in the first stage,
with plans to gradually extend them to other parts of the country. Railways are
having discussions with the Government of Japan for funding of the two projects
besides looking for funds from other sources like Public-Private Partnership,
market borrowings and leasing.
The gauge
conversion works of Mansi-Sahars, Ranchi-Loherdaga, Bharatpur-Agra Fort and
Kabakaputtur-Subramanya Road have been completed and new passenger trains on
these routes have started. Gauge conversion of Chhitorgarh-Udaipur and
Gondia-Balaghat have also been completed and passenger services on these will
soon be started.
During the year 2004-05, about 14000
kms of Broad Gauge (BG) lines are likely to be added as against the progress of
1222 kms during 2003-04. A targeted addition of 1692 kms. of Broad Gauge lines
has been set for the year 2005-06,.
Track Renewal is a continuous
process and during the year 2004-05, 4725 kms. of track renewal is expected to
be completed. During 2005-06, a target of 4000 kms. of track renewal has been
set.
World Class Infrastructure & Modernization Plan
The movement
of goods trains has been made simple and easy throughout the country by
removing almost all quotas and restrictions imposed in various corners of the
country. Now, except for iron ore traffic, Railways is in a position to make available
rakes throughout the country in a short time as per demands of customers.
Railways
have started the work on four mega bridges, which include Patna, Munger
and Kosi bridges in Bihar and Bogibeel bridge in Assam. Sufficient funds would
be made available for the timely construction of these bridges and the bridge
on Ganga River near Patna will be constructed as rail-cum-road bridge.
All the
major stations in the country including Bihar, viz., Mathura, Madhepura,
Darbhanga, Patna Saheb, Kisenganj, Tirupati, Naya Gaon, Araria, Motihari, etc.
will be developed as model stations and, in addition to provision of
various passenger amenities at these stations, pit lines on need basis will
also be constructed.
The work of Rail
Wheel Factory at Naya Gaon near Chhapra in Saran District of Bihar
commenced on 22 July, 2005. The construction work of the proposed wheel factory
is likely to be completed by 2009-2010 at an estimated cost of Rs. 470 crore.
It would be the third wheel factory and will produce 50,000 wheels per year.
15 new
concrete sleeper plants are being set up. These will generate direct employment
of 8 lakh man-days and indirect employment of 12 lakh man-days per year.
Railways is in the process of setting up Rail Land
Development Authority (RLDA) for commercially exploiting unused land
available with Railways. A Bill in this
regard has already been passed by both the houses of Parliament during the
Monsoon Session this year. This authority will also develop railway stations in
metro cities like New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai as world-class mega
terminals where shopping malls will be opened. The vacant railway land in other
parts of the country will be commercially utilized which will not only solve
the problem of trespassing of railway land but will generate additional revenue
for the railways.
Fare Rationalization
Despite an
increase in diesel and petrol prices, Railways have not increased the passenger
fares. The passenger earnings have increased by around 10% in the first
half of this fiscal. To achieve this
growth, Railways has strengthened passenger profile management system,
rationalized reservation quotas of various types and have reduced coaches from
trains running empty and attached these coaches to the trains which had long
waiting lists.
To improve
occupancy in higher classes through a sound strategy, Railways has taken an
in-principal decision to upgrade passengers in a lower class to vacant
seats in a higher class, at the time of charting, on random basis,
automatically through a computer programme. A software is being developed for
this purpose.
At present
waitlisted passengers who are not confirmed have to first get their tickets
cancelled and then stand in a queue to buy a new ticket for a new train.
Railways have now decided to permit the facility of change of date of
journey, train. class etc. on the ticket of a waitlisted passenger also.
Through all these measures, the overall occupancy of the passenger trains will
improve and the passenger earnings will increase without increasing passenger
fares.
Safety
and Security
Safety is a prime concern of Indian
Railways and adoption of new measures to improve safety is a continuous
process. The measures being taken by Indian Railways to minimize incidence of
accidents include adoption of modern technology for interlocking and signalling
system, upgradation standards of track and rolling stock, modernization of
maintenance practices, replacement of over-aged assets, provision of Anti-Collision
Device (ACD) and upgradation of training aid like simulators. ACD is an Indian product, developed
by Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd., a public sector undertaking under the
Ministry of Railways. It has been installed on Broad Gauge section of Northeast
Frontier Railway (NFR) and the Konkan Railway.
Heritage Sites
The Nilgiri Mountain
Railway has been inscribed as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in their 29th
World Heritage Committee meeting, held in Durban, South Africa. The Nilgiri
Mountain Railway is easily the most authentic and original rack and adhesion
railway in the world. It remains much as it was at the time of its completion
in September 1908 such as stations, signalling, locomotives and rolling stock.
Applications for consideration of Kalka-Shimla Railway, Neral Matheran near
Mumbai and Kangra Valley Railway (Joginder Nagar-Pathankot) as world heritage sites are already under
examination with UNESCO. Besides these, other mountain railways like have
unique qualities for the inscription by UNESCO. Railways have organized a
special function to mark the celebrations of Fairy Queen, the famous
steam locomotive of Indian Railways, which completed 150 years this year and is
still in working condition.
Railway
Projects in Jammu & Kashmir
Jammu-Udhampur Rail line is also a major achievement
of Indian Railways. The Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh flagged off
the Uttar Sampark Kranti Express and dedicated the Jammu Tawi-Udhampur
Rail line to the nation at Udhampur on the 13th April 2005. The 54.85 Km Jammu
Udhampur Rail line is part of the ambitious Jammu-Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula
Rail link. The important features of this unique project include hollow tapering
pier shafts raised on well/raft foundation in seismic zone of Himalayan
regions, Cantilever construction of pre-stressed concrete high rise box
girders, encompassing rivers, nallahs and unstable hill tops, laying tunnels
through soft and medium fragile sedimentary rocky strata, accentuated by the
fact that the terrain is tough, approaches are difficult and overall
un-favourable working environment.
Passenger friendly Service
To make Indian Railways more aesthetic, comfortable
and passenger friendly with lighting, water supply, cleanliness and a friendly
railwayman to help every customer in need, the Ministry of Railways has issued
a list of ‘touch and feel’ points to all the General Managers of Zonal
Railways. The ‘touch and feel’ points are – Improvement in cleanliness
standard in trains and at stations; Improvement in lighting particularly on
platforms, concourse, waiting halls, circulating area, booking, reservation and
enquiry offices; Improvement in circulating area at all-important stations and
making it congestion free and smooth with proper demarcated parking areas;
Upgradation of waiting rooms, waiting
halls and retiring rooms; Installation of Train Running Position Indication
Boards at all important stations; Improvement in announcement systems at stations; Upgradation of Booking & Enquiry offices; Provide more
counters to substantially reduce waiting period; Ensure availability of
drinking water at all stations; Development of adequate sitting space in
waiting halls/platforms; Improvement in quality of food supplied in trains;
Improvement in quality of bedrolls in trains and redressal of public
grievances. The schemes include round the clock grievance control rooms.
Railways have formulated a New Catering Policy
in order to improve the standard of food being served in the trains and
generate more revenue. Under this policy, the catering contracts will now be
given through open tendering system. In the New Catering Policy
provision of 25% reservation in award of licences of small catering units at
‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ category stations and 49.5% reservation at other categories of
stations has been made for SC, ST, OBCs, Minorities, war widows and widows of
railway employees, freedom fighters and weaker sections of society. These
categories have been kept out of tendering process in allotment of licences.
E-Governance
Reservation of tickets through Internet is available
for all trains, which are covered through computerized reservation. At present,
any customer can book tickets through the Internet, provided he can make
payment online. To popularize booking
through Internet, the delivery of tickets has been extended to 181 cities. Payment options have been liberalized by
introducing the facility of direct Debit through Internet and Prepaid Cash Cards
in addition to Credit Cards. The
booking hours have been extended from 4.00 a.m. to 11.30 p.m. on all weekdays
and from 4.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. on Sunday.
In addition, facility of booking through mobile phones has been
introduced along with booking of tickets through e-ticketing where
conventional ticket is dispensed with.
Integrated Train Enquiry System has been
launched for knowing Train Running Status, PNR Status, and availability of
accommodation through Interactive Voice Recording System. National Train
Enquiry System has also been established to provide updated position to the
passengers These Centres will have the capacity to handle one lakh calls a day.
The system operates on the ‘Real Time Input’ basis by the Control Officers
across the country. A Web linkage has also been provided on the Website (www.trainenquiry.com).
EK/IKC/HK/CK
(Release ID :14587)