Wednesday 1 April 2015

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Thambi- younger brother


Friday 27 February 2015

Important features of the railway Budget 2015

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday (26th of Feb) presenting the NM govt first Full year railway budget left passenger fares untouched and also steered clear of announcing any new trains. Instead he launched a slew of measures aimed at making train travel easier, more comfortable and safer.

The Railway Budget will be a apart of the several campaigns initiated by Mr. Narendra Modi like Swatchh Bharat, Make in India and Digital India. It is not a document in isolation.

1. Cleanliness: Make Swatch rail Force behind the Swatch Bharat initiative. The railway minister announced the creation of a separate department for cleanliness. Professional agencies would be engaged and adequate training would be provided to the railway staff; setting up waste-to-energy conversion plans. Build new toilets covering 650 additional stations and replacing existing toilets with 17, 388 bio toilets. Bring out design for vacuum toilets in the upcoming 6 months; Extend built-in dustbins for to non-AC coaches.
2. Be Linen: The National Institute of Fashion technology or NIFT will design bed linen for railways. Online   booking of disposable bed rolls will be made available soon.
3. Helplines: The government has set up two 24*7 helplines. Commuters would have to dial toll free numbers 138 for travel related queries and 182 for security related queries. Mobile applications to redress railway related complaints to be developed soon.
4. Ticketing: You will be issued an unreserved ticket quickly. The minister announced Operation Five Minutes for unreserved ticketing. This would be achieved by providing multiple options for ticketing like hot buttons, coin vending machines, single destination teller, multi-lingual portal, unreserved tickets on smart phones among other things. Also concessional e-tickets for differently abled persons, unreserved tickets for smartphones; automatic ticket vending machines with smart cards and currency options. Integrated ticketing system on the lines of the railway cum road tickets.
5. Surveillance Cameras: For the safety of women commuters, surveillance cameras would be installed on select routes and ladies compartments of suburban railway lines
6. Mobile phone charging: All general class compartments will have mobile phone charging points. The number of such points would increase in sleeper class too.
7. Station Facilities: 200 more stations added to ADARSH STATION Scheme. Wi-Fi zones to be extended to more stations, facility of self-operated lockers to be made available at stations, online booking of wheel chair on payment basis for senior citizens, patients and differently abled passengers would be made possible through ITCTC for select stations.
8. Increasing Train Speed: Speed of 9 railway corridors to be increased from the existing 130 kmph to 160 and 200 kmph respectively so that inter-metro journeys like Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight.
9. Catering: e-catering in 108 trains to be introduced from January 2016. Ordering food through IRCTC website at the time of booking the tickets; setting up base kitchen in the specific divisions to be run by reputed agencies for serving quality food; expansion of water vending machines in selected stations are among the other facilities declared.
10. Comfortable Travel: NID approached to design user friendly ladders to climb the upper berths; more reservation for senior citizens to the lower berths; TTEs to be instructed to help senior citizens,   pregnant women, and differently abled persons. Middle bay coaches to be reserved for women and senior citizens; Provision of Rs 120 crore for lifts and escalators (76% higher); Newly manufactured coaches to be Brailley enabled; building wider entrances for differently abled persons; allocation for passenger amenities up by 67%.
11. Financing cell in the railway Board: It will seek advices from experts in the railways field and helps in   mobilising the resources to meet the budgetary requirements.
12. Foreign Rail Technology Cooperation Scheme: The Scheme aims to achieve the higher quality service for the nation. This is being launched because Technology intensive and complex projects like speed raising and station redevelopment require lot of handholding by a specialized agency in terms of preparatory work, exploring technology options and managing bid processes.
13. Gandhi Circuit: It has been decided to promote tourism in the country through Gandhi Circuit. Indian Railways will join this effort through Incredible Rail for Incredible India. The Gandhi circuit will be set up by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to mark the 100 years of the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India.
14. Kisan Yatra: It is a special travel scheme for farmers to visit farming and marketing information centres.

Apart from the above, there are other major highlights as well. They are discussed as follows:

Highlights from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's Speech:
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·         No increase in passenger fares
·         SMS alert to be introduced for train timings
·         To introduce air-conditioned coaches for suburban trains
·         Wi-Fi to be available at 400 railway stations
·         User friendly ladders for upper berths
·         SMS alert for arrival and depart
·         To revamp station redevelopment policy completely
·         SMS alerts for arrival and departure of trains
·         To have bidding system for redevelopment of stations
·         To develop 10 satellite railway stations this year
·         On-board entertainment facility could be extended on Shatabdi trains
·         Mobile charging stations will be introduced general class coaches
·         Wagon-making scheme to be reviewed to make it easier for private investment
·         To improve cleanliness & design of bed linen
·         All India 24x7 grievances helpline 138 to start soon
·         7,000 more toilets to be replaced by Bio-Toilets, New toilets at 650 stations, more vacuum toilets
·         Passenger travelling unreserved can procure a ticket within 5 minutes
·         Mobile application to address complaints of people is also being developed
·         Hand-held devices for ticket checkers for moving towards paperless ticketing
·         Centrally managed railway display network in over 2000 stations in next 2 years
·         We are committed to provide rail connectivity to North Eastern states
·         CCTVs to be introduced in select trains and suburban trains for women safety
·         Train Protection Warning System, Train Collision Avoidance System
·         Tickets can be booked 120 days in advance instead of 60 days
·         Plan expenditure to go up to a record Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2015-16 from Rs 66,000 crore in the previous year
·         Railways plans to spend over Rs 8.5 lakh crore over five years
·         We will introduce train sets saving 20% of journey time, similar to bullet trains in design, and that can run on existing tracks
·         Feasibility report of high speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad expected by mid-2015
·         The speed passenger trains across nine corridors will be increased to 160-200 km from 110 km
·         Railways to go through transformation in five years; to increase track capacity by 10 per cent to 1.38 lakh km
·         To monetize assets rather than sell them
·         To set up full-fledged Railway University in FY16
·         Rs.2000 crore for Coastal Connectivity Program; Rs.2500 crore through BOT/Annuity route
·         6608 kms of track to be electrified
·         Projects worth Rs 96,182 crore to expand capacity of 9,420 km rail lines
·         Drawing up comprehensive policy to tap latent advertising potential
·         Revamp of Railway staff quarters and RPF Barracks
·         Rs.2000 cr for Coastal Connectivity Program; Rs.2500 cr through BOT/Annuity route. 1000 MW Solar plant; 100DEMUs to dual fuel.
·         Setting up ‘Kayakalp’ to help in Technology Up gradation: It is an innovation council proposed to be setup. It will be set up for the purpose of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in Railways.
·         Decentralize, deregulate and delegate to make freight business simpler
·         1,00,011 Cr. Planning Budget in 2015-16
·         Corporate safety Plans,  ISRO to be involved; 3438 level Xings to be eliminated, Rly expense increased by 2600%
·         MUTP-III project for Mumbai. (Mumbai urban Transport Project)
·         Malviya Chair at IIT BHU for Railway technology excellence: Varanasi This chair will help in the development of new materials used in all assets of the Railways
·         Train Protection Warning Systems and Anti colliding system to be developed by RDSO
·         Automatic Freight Scheme to be launched in Pan India.
·         8.5 lakh crore rupees to be invested in the railways in the next 5 years
·         Operating ratio proposed at 88.5%. Best ever in 9 years.
·         Increase track length by 20 per cent and passenger carrying capacity from 21 to 30 million.
·         Facility of self operated lockers at stations

Safety Apps: (Source: The Hindu Dated: 27/02/2015)
1.       Mobile App being developed to redress complains. Facility to start from march 1 in the Northern Railway
2.       Radio Based Signaling: Design project to be taken up wih IIT Kanpur for alerts at unmanned level crossing
3.       Priority to Women: Nirbhaya Fund to be used for augmenting the security of women passengers.
4.       For a safe Ride:
(a) Five year safety plan to be framed by June 2015;
(b) Recommendations of the Kakodkar Safety Committee: to be examined by April
©, Surveillance cameras: In select mainline coaches and women’s coaches without intruding into privacy
(d) Geo spatial technology:  to be used to provide audio visual warning to the road users at unmanned level crossings
(e ) Train collision Avoidance Systems: to be installed in select routes.
**West Bengal provisions from the railway Budget:
Kolkata metro budget hiked by Rs 40 crore: this was Rs. 540 crore last year, and has been revised to Rs. 580 crore in the Railway Budget 2015 (both for the existing metro services and the pending metro projects in Bengal)
No updates or allocation for the East West Metro project is available yet as this is still pending under the Ministry of urban Development.

Concerns:
1.       Source for the expenditure declared to be rs 8.56 crore over the next five years: Problem is there is not fixed lines as from where the expenditure is met up with. Td various here is not enough surplus to plough back into investments. Mr Prabhu has acknowledged the problem and also suggested various sources to raise finances, like borrowing from multilateral institutions like WB and pension funds whose investment horizons would match the long term plans of the railways. They would set up a holding company or a joint venture with existing non-banking financial companies of public sector enterprises such as the Indian Railway Finance Corporation.
2.       Electrification of 6608 rout kilometers in 2015-16 compared to 462 kms sanctioned in 2014-15 and for that matter the plan to invest Rs. 96,182 crore in doubling/tripling or quadrupling and electrifying 9400 kms of tracks sounds impressive but execution is the key to it.
3.       We also have seen such ambitious plans in the past faltering at the execution stage.
4.       The projected improvement in the execution ratio from 91.8% to 88.5 % in the coming one also sounds impressive but the fine print on expenditure needs to be watched as the ration is easy to message. N
5.       Overall this railway Budget is a break from the past in taking a long term view about the development of railways but is definitely financially independent and operationally efficient.
6.       He has five years to reach his destination.
7.       The increased freight fares can also heighten cement production cost, along with power tariff. Coal and iron n Steel will also be effected with the change.
Way Forward: Source: The Hindu, Editorial
1.       A Railway Budget is essentially an opportunity for any government to push forward the GDP growth by at least 2.5% but according to man y the Modi government in its second budget has lost this opportunity again.
2.       The huge expectation not only in India but also wide across the world for a completely new orientation and path breaking budget has been belied.

  1. However, earnings from passengers have risen in the past year on the back of a 14 per cent increase in fares announced in June 2014.