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Speech of Shri Nitish Kumar
Introducing the Railway Budget, 1999-2000
on 25th February 1999 - Part II
Steps taken by Railways to increase Revenues
 | Sir, the freight loading in the current year has been a matter of concern
despite various efforts made. Only recently some signs of recovery have been noticed and
we hope that the coming year will be more favourable. Innovative marketing efforts are
being made to increase loading on the railways and we hope to increase loading of 'Other
Goods' traffic rather than depend only on core traffic like Coal, Iron & Steel, raw
material for steel plants etc. Now I would like to elaborate the various steps taken by
Railways to increase revenue :-
 | Ministry of Railways have reduced the classification of some commodities
and have also given 'Volume Discount', so that we become more competitive. In addition,
the facility of two-point rake loading has been provided at some stations and supply of
rakes is being made in less than 48 hours. |
| A special package has been prepared for the Steel sector to attract
traffic to railways. |
| Container Corporation is running trains at 100 kmph with wagons of new
and advanced technology between Delhi and Jawahar Lal Nehru Port (JNPT) in Mumbai. This
has reduced the transit time between Delhi and Mumbai from 95 hours to 48 hours. CONCOR
also plans to run 40 CONTRACK trains per month to provide guaranteed transit services for
expensive goods such as television, refrigerators, air-conditioners etc. |
| Full powers have been given to the General Managers to quote
station-to-station rates so as to provide requisite impetus to the marketing efforts. |
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| Sir, along with steps taken to increase freight loading, we have also
decided to initiate certain other new measures to increase revenues in 1999-2000 :-
| Leasing of front brakevan in all passenger trains for parcel traffic |
| Recommence manufacture of parcel vans with a view to increasing parcel
traffic |
| Running of special parcel trains between important stations and trading
centres in which some space will be available on lease |
| To bring transparency and competitiveness in catering contracts for
Pantry Cars and Refreshment Rooms, two-packet system is being introduced. Provision for
minimum licence fee is being made more than double the existing licence fees. Further, the
security deposit by the contractors is being sufficiently increased to contain the
tendency of malpractices. |
| It is proposed to increase minimum penalty for ticketless travel from Rs.
50/- to Rs. 250/-. While increasing revenues, this will reduce inconvenience to the
genuine passengers. |
| The rates for commercial advertisements at railway stations, which are
presently quite low, will be increased. |
| A separate Directorate is being created by RITES to offer consultancy
services as well as provide implementation packages to our major freight customers. Making
available a single window interface with the railways will enable our customers to reduce
their total logistic cost in using the rail mode of transportation. |
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Passenger Services
| Sir, people's representatives and the public often make requests to
either start new trains, increase the frequency of trains, extend the run of trains or
provide additional halts. Much as I would like to, it is not always possible to fulfill
such demands due to limitation of resources and other technical reasons. However, within
the available resources, it is proposed to provide the following 14 new train services :-
| Chennai - Tirupati Shatabdi Express |
| Shalimar - Haldia Intercity Express |
| Secunderabad - Machhilipatnam Express |
| Mumbai - Sawantwadi - Madgaon Intercity Express |
| Kurla - Patna Superfast Express (Biweekly) |
| Amritsar - Dharbanga Express via Narkatiaganj (Biweekly) |
| Jaipur - Bangalore Express via Secunderabad (Biweekly) |
| Guwahati - Chennai Express (Biweekly) |
| Delhi - Gandhidham Express (Biweekly) |
| Delhi - Coimbatore Express (Weekly) |
| Pune - Ernakulam Express (Weekly) |
| Raichur - Gulbarga Intercity Service |
| Kamakhya - New Bongaigaon Passenger |
| Patna - Mughalsarai Passenger via Gaya |
|
| The frequency of the following trains will be increased :-
| 8017/8018 Howrah - Purulia Express from 6 days a week to daily |
| 8463/8464 Bangalore - Visakhapatnam Express from 2 days a week to 4 days
a week |
| 1095/1096 Pune - Ahmedabad Ahimsa Express from 3 days a week to 4 days a
week |
| 2101/2102 Kurla - Howrah Super Deluxe Express from weekly to 3 days a
week |
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| The run of the following trains will be extended :-
| 4047/4048 Delhi - Gorakhpur Express to Raxaul via Narkatiaganj |
| 5207/5208 Amritsar - Barauni Express to Katihar |
| 4737/4738 Bikaner - Jaipur Express to Ajmer (M.G.) |
| 5741/5742 Alipurduar - Siliguri Intercity Express to New Jalpaigur
express on 2 days a week to Bhusaval |
| 6343/6344 Ernakulam - Nizamuddin Swarnajayanti weekly Express to
Tiruvananthapuram |
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| 2307/2308 Jodhpur-Howrah Express (daily) running via Grand Chord will run
via Main Line one day in a week. |
| On completion of gauge conversion, the following improved broad gauge
services shall be provided :-
| Four pairs of passenger services on Narkatiaganj-Gorakhpur section |
| Three pairs of passenger services on Indara - Phephna section |
| Three pairs of passenger services on Lalkuan - Kashipur section |
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