The good news is that there is no railway fare hike announced by Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his second railway budget speech for 2016-17. However, it should be noted that like the previous two rail fare hikes announced in 2014 and 2015 were also not part of the railway budget speech.
Instead of fare hikes, 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, and semi high speed trains running along the golden quadrilateral among a number of measures.
Presenting his budget speech, Prabhu said in order to make travel on Indian railways more comfortable, his ministry is proposing more facilities to the passengers like providing 65,000 additional berths in the trains and the installation of 2500 water vending machines. Prabhu said railways is proposing 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 120,000 concurrent users as against 40,000 earlier. Four hundred more stations will be provided with Wi Fi facilities," he said.
Here is a quick snapshot of the railway budget highlightsCustomer Friendly Measures- 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.
- Passenger security will be enhanced through more helplines and CCTVs.
- 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.
- 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 per cent.
- 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.
- Sarathi Seva in Konkan Railway will be expanded 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.
- Introduction of SMART (Specially Modified Aesthetic Refreshing Travel) Coaches 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.
- Integrate all facilities into two mobile apps dealing with ticketing issues and for receipt and redressal of complaints and suggestions.
- 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 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.
- Passenger amenities and beautification of stations at pilgrimage centres to be at priority basis across 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.
Financial Performance- Earnings target budgeted at Rs 51,012 crore.
- During 2015-16 a saving of Rs 8720 crore could be achieved neutralizing the most of the revenue shortfall with operating ratio of 90 per cent
- Budget proposes operating ratio of 92 per cent, restricting growth of ordinary working expenses by 11.6 per cent 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.
- During 2015-16 investment would be close to double of average of previous five years.
- 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. This could be achieved by procuring power directly at competitive rates.
- 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.
Budget Estimates 2016-17
- Gross Traffic Receipts kept at Rs 1,84,820 crore
- Passenger earnings growth pegged at 12.4 per cent
- Earnings target budgeted at Rs 51,012 crore.
- Freight traffic pegged at incremental traffic of 50 million tonnes, anticipating a healthier growth in the core sector of economy.
- Goods earnings 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 2016-17Higher 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.
- 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
On Dedicated Freight Corridor
- Almost all contracts for civil engineering works will be awarded by the end of this financial year.
- Rs 24000 crore worth contracts were awarded since November 2014 as against Rs. 13,000 crore contracts awarded during the last six years. "Railways proposes to take up North-South, East-West and East Coast freight corridors through innovative financing including PPP," Prabhu said.
Work Progress Report- Underlining the importance of Jammu and Kashmir and North East Prabhu 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.
- 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.
- Tuna Port connectivity project has been commissioned and rail connectivity projects to ports of Jaigarh, Dighi, Rewas and Paradip are under implementation.
- Implementation of rail connectivity for the ports of Nargol and Hazira will be taken up under PPP in 2016-17.
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
