Trivedi Presents Rail Budget: Safety to be Top Priority
New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS): With safety as the prime focus, Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi Wednesday spelt out five priority areas for his ministry over the 12th Five Year Plan.
"My focus will be safe safety, safety, safety," Trivedi told the Lok Sabha while presenting the rail budget for the next fiscal in the Lok Sabha. He added this was the decision he took as soon as he assumed charge of his ministry last year against the backdrop of a rail accident in Uttar Pradesh.
"I vow to target zero deaths," he said in his maiden 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."
The other four focus areas listed by the minister were consolidation, de-congestion and capacity augmentation, modernisation and bringing down operating ratio.
Trivedi, a member of the Trinamool Congress, 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.
The minister 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 to India'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.
Indian Railways to increase fares after 9 years
Indian Railways will increase passenger fares by upto 30 paisa per km in 2012-13, Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi said Wednesday.
This will be the first increase in passenger fare in nine years.
"I propose to rationalise the fares," Trivedi said while presenting his ministry's budget for the next fiscal.
"I am asking for an extra only two paisa per km for suburban and ordinary second class, similarly an increase of three paise per km for mail and express trains and for sleeper class only by five paise per km," the minister said.
Trivedi said fares for AC chair car and three tier category will be increased by 10 paise per km, for two tier by 15 paise per km and for AC first class by 30 paise per km.
Karnataka's share
Kolar gets coach unit, B'lore training centre in rail budget
Bangalore, Mar 14 (PTI): Kolar gets a new coach manufacturing unit and Bangalore a specialisted training centre in the Railway budget presented in Parliament today.
The unit for coaches is proposed to be established in Kolar (incidentally the home district of Union Minister of State for Railways, K H Muniyappa) with active participation of the State Government.
The Government plans to set up three training centres named "Safety Villages", including in Bangalore.
"Railways must possess modern, well-trained and equipped disaster management machinery. The rescue and relief teams for the accident sites need specialised training centre where they can be engaged in hands on drills", Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said in Lok Sabha in the context of these centres.
New trains announced in the budget that brought cheers to Karnataka passengers included Yeshvanthpur-Kochuveli AC Express (Weekly), Chennai-Bangalore AC double-decker Express (daily), Bidar-Secunderabad Intercity Express (six-days-a-week), Indore-Yeshvanthpur Express (weekly), Mysore-Sai Nagar Shirdi Express (weekly) and Solapur-Yeshvanthpur (tri-weekly) via Gulbarga.
New passenger trains announced in the budget include Mysore-Shravanabelagola, Mysore-Chamarajnagar and Mysore-Birur via Arsikere (all daily).
Among the new line projects (that's of particular interest to Karnataka) with cost-sharing by state government that have been sent to Planning Commission for appraisal and 'in-principle' approval include Gadag-Haveri, Gadag-Wadi, Chikballapur-Puttaparthy and Srinivasapura-Madanapalli.
List of new line surveys to be taken up during 2012-13 include Haveri-Sirsi, rail link to connect Dandeli to Hubli-Ankola line, Shimoga-Shikaripura-Ranebennur and Madhugiri-Gauribidanur.
Gauge conversion works of Kolar-Chintamani and Chikballapur-Siddlagatta as well as doubling of Ramanagar-Channapatna, Mysore-Naganhalli, Maddur-Hanakere, Ballakere-Birur and Birur-Ajjampur (part) would be completed in the current financial year.
Doubling of Channapatna-Settihalli, Hanakere-Mandya, Mandya-Yeliyur and Nagavangala-Ajjampur line is slated to be completed in 2012-13.
Railways to set up firm to develop, maintain stations
The responsibility of developing and maintaining thousands of railway stations across the country will be entrusted to a new company under the public private partnership (PPP) route, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi said Wednesday while presenting his ministry's budget for the next fiscal.
"I propose to setup a separate organisation. This is a major step. This organisation --Indian Railway Station Development Corporation -- will redevelop and maintain stations on patterns of airports," Trivedi told the Lok Sabha.
According to Trivedi, the organisation will utilise suitable revenue models to maintain the stations under PPP model and has great potential of proving employment.
"This organisation will find suitable revenue models and funded through public private partnership and will be cost neutral to the railways," Trivedi said.
"Modernisation of stations at major metros has the potential to employ 50,000 people."
The Indian Railways, which runs the third largest railroad network in the world, has around 7,083 stations on 64,000 km route with 12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight trains. It ferries 23 million travellers and 2.65 million tonnes of goods daily.
Highlights
* No steep increase in passenger fares; 2 paise per km for second class on suburban trains and 3 paise per km on mail and express trains; 5 paise per km for sleeper class; 10 paise per km for a/c III tier and first class; 15 paise per km for a/c II tier; 30 paise per km for a/c I.
* Outlay of Rs.60,100 crore during 2012-13, the highest ever.
* Targeting freight carriage of 1,025 million tonnes to bring in Rs.89,339 crore; passenger earnings estimated at Rs.36,073 crore; gross receipts estimated at Rs.1.32 lakh crore.
* New passenger services: 820 new items; 75 new express trains; 21 new passenger trains; 75 new services in Mumbai suburban system.
* 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.
* Improvement of passenger amenities at a cost of Rs.1,112 crore; regional cuisines to be introduced.
* 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.
* Focus during next five years on five areas: tracks, bridges, signalling, rolling stock and stations.
* Signalling to be improved over 19,000 km.
* Investment of Rs.1.70 lakh crore on rolling stock in next five years.
* Attempt to increase train speeds to 160 kmph; journey time from New Delhi to Kolkata can be brought down to 14 hours from 17 hours.
* Improvements to railway stations can provide employment to 50,000 people.
* Railways will require Rs.14 lakh crore in the next 10 years for modernisation.
* Aim to bring down operating ratio from 90 percent to 84.9 percent in 2012-13 and to 72 percent by 2016-17.
* Time has come for formulating national policy for railways on the lines of that for defence and external affairs.
* Railways should grow at 10 percent annually for sustained GDP growth.
* 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 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.
* Stress on strengthening safety. Has to be 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.
* Independent tariff authority suggested; needs serious debate; experts panel established; decision after debate in parliament.
* Excess of Rs.1,492 crore after meeting expenses/dividend payments not adequate for meeting costs of several projects.
* World Bank funding of Rs.6,500 crore firmed up for dedicated freight corridors; land acquired for 3,300 km; first contracts to be handed out during 2012-13.
* 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.
* Thirty-one projects over 5,000 km being implemented with state govenments sharing costs.
* 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.
* GRP/RPF personnel deployed on 3,500 trains.
* Free travel by Rajdhani express for Arjuna awardees.
* Dedicated railway design wing at National Institute of Design with a contribution of Rs.10 crore.
* Guru Parikrama trains to be run to Amritsar, Patna and Nanded.
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