Railway
Budget 2016 – 17: Highlights
Railway
Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu on 25 February 2016 presented the Railway Budget
2016-17 in the Lok Sabha. In his second Rail Budget, Prabhu outlined a capital
plan of 121000 crore rupees in 2016-17. A
saving of Rs. 8720 crore rupees for Budget estimates of 2015-16 will be
effected in 2016.
Theme
of the Budget is Overcoming challenges –
Reorganize, Restructure Rejuvenate Indian Railways: ‘Chalo, Milkar Kuch
Naya Karen’.
Railway Budget of
2016-17 is based on three pillars
and they are Nav Arjan (New Revenues),
Nav Manak (New Norms) and New Sanrachna
(New Structures).
New Revenues
It exploits new
sources of revenue so that every asset, tangible or non-tangible gets optimally
monetized.
New Norms
A Zero Budgeting
approach to the financials of the ensuring year, improvement in efficiency
yardsticks and procurement practices to bring them in line with international
best practices
New Structures
Need to re-imagine
the conventional ways of solving issues like co-operation, collaboration and
communication, creativity and communication to the hallmark of decision-making
and actions.
Major Highlights
• Wants to double
investment in Railways
• Delay in running
of 95% trains will be ended by 2020
• Rail tickets will
be available at all places by 2020
• Aimed at
increasing speed of passenger train by 80km/hr
• LIC has agreed to
invest 1.5 lakh crore rupees over 5 years on extremely favourable terms
• Dedicated freight
corridor project gaining momentum. New freight corridors announced:
Delhi-Chennai, Kharagpur-Mumbai, Kharagpur-Vijayawada.
• Poised to commission
broad gauge lines at the rate of 7 km per day against 4.5 km over last five
years
• Plan to generate 9
crore man-days employment by 2017-18 and 14 crore man-days by 2018-19
• Institutional
financing will be introduced for funding projects
• Action of 139
Budget announcements on 2015-16 has been initiated
• Aimed at
eliminating unmanned level crossings by 2020
• Aimed at
generating revenues of order of 184820 crore rupees in 2016, which is 10.1
percent higher than revised target of 2015
• North-East India,
especially Mizoram and Manipur, to be connected through broad gauge soon
• To commission 2800
km of new tracks in 2016-17
• Bids for setting
up 2 locomotive factories was finalised and the new factories will be set up
with an order book of 40000 crore rupees.
Rail Budget History
and Important facts
• Indian Railways to
surpass ambitious target of commissioning 2500 kms of broad gauge lines, almost
30% higher than last year
• Catering service
will be managed by IRCTC in phased manner
• e-ticket facility
for foreign debit and credit card holders will be provided
• Cancellation
facility through 139 helpline number will be provided
• Journalists to get
facility of e-booking of tickets on concessional passes
• Bar-coded tickets
will be introduced on pilot basis, this will help to tackle menace of
ticketless travel
• Overnight
double-decker trains to be introduced on business travel routes
• Long distance
superfast train Antyodaya Express
for unreserved passengers will be launched
• Fully unreserved
superfast trains to be introduced on dense traffic routes
• Deen Dayal coaches for long distance
trains for unreserved passengers will be introduced
• Full-fledged
Railway University will come-up soon
• Railways to
increase the quota of lower berths for women and senior citizens
• Bidding for
redevelopment of few large and medium stations will be undertaken
• Enhanced capacity
of e-ticketing system from 2000 tickets/min to 7,200/min.
• A framework will
be formulated where net saving from electrification will be able to finance
capital expenditure.
• Wi-Fi will be
provided at 400 railway station in 2016-17, as compared to 100 in 2015-16
• 2000 km of
electrification proposed for 2016-17
• Chennai will have India's first rail auto hub
• Railway Ministry
will partner with Tamil Nadu Government to develop suburban network in Chennai
through innovative financing methods
• For suburban
rails, Railway Ministry will work with Karnataka Government
• Ring Railway to be redeveloped in
partnership with the Delhi government.
• FM radio stations
will be invited to provide train borne entertainment via PA systems
• Rail Bandhu magazine will be published
in all regional languages
• GPS-based digital
display in coaches for showing upcoming stations will be installed
• Elevated rail
corridors from Churchgate to Virar and CST to Panvel are planned
• Coolies have been
renamed and will be called 'Sahayaks'
• Children's menu,
baby foods, baby boards to be made available for travelling mothers
• IRCTC will make
available local cuisine of choice, hygienic food. Local cuisine of choice will
be made available to passengers
• All new Railway
stations to be built as per Accessible India guidelines
• No hike in railway
fares.
• The companies
owned by Railways to come under a holding companies
• Two dedicated
freight corridors by 2019
• 50 crore rupees
kept aside for providing innovation grants to start-ups
• Drones will be
used for remote monitoring of ongoing projects
• 33 percent
sub-quota for women under all reserved categories
• Advertising
revenue to be increased by more than four times in 2016-17
7 Missions
While
presenting the budget, Mr. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has proposed to transform
Indian Railways through seven Mission
activities – Avataran. These missions are:
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Seven Missions
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Mission 25
Tonne
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It aims to increase revenue by augmenting carrying
capacity. To achieve this 10-20% freight loading will be done through
25-tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight
traffic on high axle load wagons by FY19-20.
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Mission
Zero Accident
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It comprises of two sub missions
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Elimination of unmanned level crossings: The goal
is eliminate all unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge in the next 3-4
years through innovative financing mechanisms. It will reduce deaths due to
accidents and improve throughput of the network
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TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System): An indigenous technology has
been developed to equip 100% of the High Density Network with TCAS in the
next 3 years. This will prevent head on collisions and improve throughput by
increasing average sectional speeds.
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Mission
PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency)
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This mission aims to improve our procurement and
consumption practices to improve the quality of goods and services. It will
introduce a culture of optimum usage by adopting practices such as Vendor
Managed Inventory, direct procurement of HSD, new procedures for
identification and disposal of scrap. Comprehensive review of procurement and
consumption of HSD will lead to saving more than Rs 1,500 crore in 2016-17.
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Mission
Raftaar
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It targets doubling of average speeds of freights trains and
increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in
the next 5 years. Loco hauled passenger trains will be replaced by DEMU/MEMU
over the next five years. It will complement Mission 25 Tonne to increase
throughput of the railway system
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Mission
Hundred
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This mission will commission at least a hundred
sidings in the next 2 years. The current siding/ PFT policy would be revised
to elicit greater private participation. An online portal will be operated
for accepting and processing all new applications, alongwith decentralization
of powers.
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Mission beyond book-keeping
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It will
establish an accounting system where outcomes can be tracked to inputs. This
will transform IR as right accounting would determine right costing and hence
right pricing and right outcomes.
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Mission Capacity Utilisation
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It proposes to prepare a blueprint for making full use of the huge
new capacity that will be created through two Dedicated Freight Corridors
between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata scheduled to be commissioned by 2019.
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