RAILWAY BUDGET 2016-2017 : Ministry of Railways
- No Hike in Passenger Fare
- 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.
PIB
