NEW DELHI: Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday presentaedhis maiden Railway Budget in Parliament and said the budget was aimed at the common man.
Towards the end of his Rail Budget speech, Trivedi announced that train fares would be increased across all classes, but the hike would be nominal. In the first hike in 10 years, the minister said the proposal was to hike fares by two paise per kilometre for 2nd class.
He said the attempt was to round off fares to eliminate the need for change. The fare hike will be
During his Railway Budget speech, Dinesh Trivedi announced 75 new express trains and 21 new passenger trains. He said the railways was expected to recruit over one lakh people in the next financial year.
Guru Parikarma train covering Amritsar, Patna and Nanded was one of the trains that woule be introduced, he said.
Dinesh Trivedi said the railways would induct two board members for marketing and safety.
At the start of his presentation of the Rail Budget, the minister said the emphasis of the Rail Budget would be on improving infrastructure.
Safety is my first priority and sole emphasis, Dinesh Trivedi also said while reading out his budget speech. “India Railways has to be be benchmarked with Europe and Japan,” he said.
“My focus will be safe safety, safety, safety,” Trivedi told the Lok Sabha, adding this was the decision he took as soon as he assumed charge his ministry last year against the backdrop of a rail accident in Uttar Pradesh last year.
“I wow to target zero deaths,” he said in his rail budget speech. “I also propose to set up an independent railway safety authority, as recommended by an expert group headed by the former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar.”
Trivedi said he was not satisfied with the current safety standards. He said a special purpose vehicle would be set up to achieve better safety protocols. Trivedi said unmanned level crossings would be abolished in the next five years.
Trivedi said the target of reducing accidents from 0.55 to 0.17 has been met.
The railway minister said focus would also be on modernisation of railways and the Prime Minister’s advisor Sam Pitroda would head the railway modernization commiittee. The minister for railways announced several modernisation programmes for the railways in his speech and said investment of Rs 5.60 lakh crore would be required for the purpose.
The other four three areas listed by the minister were consolidation, de-congestion and capacity augmentation, bringing down operating ratio. Trivedi said the operating ratio of the railways — amount spent on running the network against revenues — will be lowered to 84.5 percent from the current 95 percent, and to 74 percent by the terminal year of the 12th plan.
This is key to the network being able to garner money for expansion and modernisation.
Trivedi said he was looking at the current budget not as an exercise for the next fiscal alone, but also for the entire five year plan, drawing from the Vision 2020 document of his predecessor and current West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The Indian Railways run the third largest railroad network in the world spread over some 64,000 km, with 12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight trains each day from as many as 7,083 stations to ferry 23 million travellers and 2.65 million tonnes of goods daily.
Given the socio-economic role played by the railways in India’s transformation, Trivedi also said time had come for formulating national policy for the network on the lines of those for defence and external affairs.
According to the minister, Indian Railways will invest Rs 7.35 lakh crore during the 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), against Rs 1.92 lakh crore in the current one. By then, it will double its contribution toIndia’s gross domestic product to 2 percent.
Trivedi said the outlay of Rs 60,100 crore proposed for 2012-13 will be the highest ever and added that the network will require Rs 14 lakh crore over the next 10 years for modernisation.
Trivedi announced another scheme – Indian Railways Stations Development Corp will redevelop stations and maintain them on pattern of airports, he said. The minister also announced special projects for the north-east and Jammu Kashmir.
With several railway employees also good sportspersons, Trivedi announced the setting up of a Rail Khel Ratna Award to be given to 10 sportspersons every year.
HIGHLIGHTS
* Railways must attract 10 percent of the Rs 20 lakh crore government expects to spend on infrastructure during 12th Plan
* Railways expect gross budgetary support of Rs 2.5 lakh crore during 12th Plan.
* Collective challenge to formulate viable funding mechanism for modernisation.
* Railways should contribute 2 percent of GDP from the present 1 percent.
*487 approved projects at various levels of execution
*Market borrowing through IRFC at Rs 50,000 cr needed in 2012
*Modernize rolling stock via fresh purchases of wagons, engines
*Plan to upgrade 19,000 kms of tracks in 5 years
*To create 1000 stations through PPP route in 5 years
*Station development org to be funded via PPP
*Delhi-Kolkata travel time to be brought down to 14 hours from 17 hours
*Facilitate running of longer and heavier freight trains
*To introduce double decker container trains
*Total cost of signalling for five years is Rs 35,000 crores
*17 gauge conversion projects will be completed in FY 12-13
*825 kms of gauge conversion projects to be completed
*Rs 6872 crore allocated under the new line plan
*Development of major stations to create 50,000 jobs
*New lines to be laid in under-developed parts
*Plan to enhance GPS use in railways
*To complete over 45 new lines in FY13, stretching over 700 kms
*Rs 1102 crores for passenger amenities in FY 13 as compared to Rs 700 cr in previous year
*To set up elevated suburban corridors in Navi Mumbai. Working on PPP for elevated Churchgate-Virar corridor
*New lines to be set up for Kolkata Metro
*Railways to take up linking of Agartala to Akura inBangladesh.
*31 projects of over 5,000 km being implemented with the support of state governments.
*All meter gauge, narrow gauge sections to be made broad gauge, except heritage lines, by end of 12th Five Year Plan.
*725 km of new line completed in the current year, Rs 6,725 crore for new lines, says Trivedi.
*14 new rail line survey to be taken up in 2012-13.
*Budgetary support pegged at Rs 25,000 crore for the coming year as against projected requirement of Rs 45,000 crore.
*Logistics Corporation will be created for providing logistics solutions for rail users.
Earlier before leaving for Parliament, Trivedi told reporters, “The budget is going to be very good for the country and the common man. I have to make sure that Indian Railways is solid like gold.”
“The railways are one of the most important infrastructure. Without the railways growing,India’s GDP cannot grow,” the minister added.
- Hike after 9 years – ranges from 2p / km to 30p/km
- For better management at ticket windows, passenger fares to be rounded off
- Passenger fare hiked – for express trains 3paise per kilometer
- Finance Ministry agrees to loan Rs 3,000 crore to Railways at 8.55 per cent interest
- Gross rail traffic targeted to increase by Rs 28,635 crore to Rs 1,32,552 crore in 2012-13
- Passenger earnings to increase to Rs 36,200 crore. Gross traffic receipts Rs 1,32,552 crore.
- Railways to carry 55 million tons more freight at 1025 million tonnes in 2012-13.
- Surplus with railways at Rs 1,492 crore in current year as against targeted Rs 5,258 crore.
- Expansion of suburban rail networks and addition of more services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
- Guru Parikarma special trains to cover Sikh pilgrimage centres ofAmritsar,Patnaand Nanded.
- 75 new express passenger trains to be introduced.
- Railway Board to be restructured, two more members to be included.
- All Garib Rath trains to have one special AC coach for differently abled persons.
- Earning target scaled down to Rs28,800 crore
- More Poetry from the Minister- Rail Gadi ko nayi dawa chahiye; thode paise chaiye aur is safar mein mujhe naya humsafar chaiye
- Improvement of passenger amenities at a cost of Rs.1,112 crore; regional cuisines to be introduced.
- World Bank funding of R.6,500 crore firmed up for dedicated freight corridors; land acquired for 3,300 km; first contracts to be handed out during 2012-13
- Standard of hygiene needs to be improved substantially; all out efforts will be made on this in the next six months; duty bound to provide high standard of services; special housekeeping body to be set up for stations and trains.
- Corrosion from night soil being discharged from toilets on tracks costs Rs.350 crore annually; green toilets to be installed in 2,500 coaches in the next one year.
- Two thousand one hundred specially designed coaches manufactured to meet needs of the differently abled; aim to provide one such coach in each express train.
- Proposal to recruit over 1 lakh people
- Proposal to include two new members on Railway Board: Member in charge of Public-Private Partnership and Marketing; Member in charge of Safety
- Introduction of alternate train accommodation system – to accommodate wait listed passengers
- Centralised real-time train-running information; already activated on 36 trains, will be extended to all trains in the next 18 months – to provide information to passengers on SMS and email
- High speed corridors and trains at 250 kilometres- Study on Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad completed, Delhi-Jaipur to be undertaken. The project is resources intensive, special budgetary support needed to make this a reality
- Electrification to be undertaken over 6,500 km at an allocation of Rs.8,000 crore during 12th Plan
- Conversion from DC to AC power supply completed in Western Railway corridor of Mumbai suburban rail system; conversion of Central Railway corridor to be completed in 2012-13
- Elevated corridor from Churchgate to Virar in Mumbai being firmed up
- Government should consider dividend payback to railways
- Government should consider dividend payback to railways
- Thirty-one projects over 5,000 km being implemented with state governments sharing costs.
- Some quotable quotes by the Railway Minister;
‘Rail ke chok chok se hi desh ki dhak dhak hai’
‘Rail ki barkat se hi desh ki barkat hai’
- Rae Bareli Coach factory: Phase 2 to be initiated in 2012-13
- Dedicated Freight Corridors : One of the biggest infrastructure projects covering 3300 kilometres; expected civil and track contracts would be awarded in 2012-13
- Capacity augmentation to get Rs.4,410 crore during 2012-13
- Eighty-five new line projects to be taken up during 2012-13.
- One hundred and fourteen new line surveys to be undertaken during 2012-13.
- New line projects to get Rs.6,870 crore in 2012-13.
- Gauge conversion to be undertaken over 800 km with an allocation of Rs.1,950 crore.
- Budgetary support pegged at Rs 25,000 crore for the coming year as against projected requirement of Rs 45,000 crore
- Confident of completing 725 km of new lines in current year
- Proposal to allocate Rs4410 crore to capacity augmentation
- 17 gauge conversion projects listed for 2012-13
- Propose completion of 45 projects
- Logistics Corporation to be created for providing logistics solutions for rail users
- Indian Railways Stations Development Corp will redevelop stations and maintain them on pattern of airports.
- Railways will require Rs.14 lakh crore in the next 10 years for modernisation.
- Rs 60,100 crore – Highest ever plan investment made for 2012-13
- Market borrowing of Rs 50,000 crore
- Trivedi: Time for national policy for railways
- Trivedi : Focus on safety, consolidation, decongestion, modernisation
- Plan to eliminate level crossings in the next 5 years
- Plan to modernise 19,000 kilometres of track – Indian Railways has more than 1 lakh kilometres of track
- Improvements planned to the signalling system
- Railways to invest Rs.7.35 lakh crore during 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), a quantum jump from the Rs.1.92 lakh crore invested in previous plan period.
- Railways must attract 10 per cent of the Rs.20 lakh crore government expects to spend on infrastructure during 12th Plan
- Railways expect gross budgetary support of Rs.2.5 lakh crore during 12th Plan.
- Railways should contribute 2 per cent of GDP from the present 1 percent.
- Stress on strengthening safety. Has to be benchmarked with the best in the world.
- Target of reducing accidents from 0.55 to 0.17 has been met.
- Special purpose vehicle to be set up on safety protocols.
- Independent railway safety authority to be set up as statutory safety body.
- Investment of Rs.5.60 lakh crore required for modernisation.
- Railways Minister recites poetry to make his point – Haath ki lakeeron se zindagi nahi banti; humara bhi kuch hissa hain zindagi banane mein
- Rs 14 lakh crore required in the next 10 years
- Rs 5.6 lakh crores for railway modernisation: Dinesh Trivedi
- Propose independent Railway Safety Authority with statutory powers
- High Speed Railway Safety Committee has recommended far-reaching changes
- “Our target should be zero deaths; 60% deaths happen at unmanned level crossings”
- Not satisfied with safety standards inIndia: Trivedi
- Safety inIndiamust be benchmarked against Europe,Japan: Trivedi
- Grateful to Maa, Maati, Maanush, says TMC Rail Minister Trivedi
- ALso propose Railway R&D Authority: Rail Minister
- Geopolitical ramifications require matching response: Rail Minister
- 12th PLan for Railway Rs7.3 lakh crore investment suggested
- Pradhan Mantril Rail Vikas Yojana is under formulation, needs additional fund requried of RS 5 triliion
- Trivedi forgets to mention Lalu Yadav among “illustrious” predecessors, corrected by MPs
