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Budget at a glanceBudget 1998-99
Budget 1997-98
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Speech of Shri Nitish Kumar
Introducing the Railway Budget, 1999-2000
on 25th February 1999 - Part I(b)
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 |
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| 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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MEMU, DMU and Rail Bus services shall be introduced on the following
sections :-
| MEMU Services
| Jhajha - Kiul section |
| Vijayawada - Kakinada section |
| Kakinada - Visakhapatnam section |
| Durg - Raipur- Bilaspur section |
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| DMU Services
| Anand - Khambat (B.G) |
| Vijayawada - Bhimavaram - Narsapur (B.G.) |
| Delhi - Shamli (B.G.) |
| Mehasana - Tarangahill (M.G.) |
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| Rail Bus Services |
| Bangarapet - Kolar (B.G.) |
| Tiruturaipundi - Agastiampalli (M.G.) |
| Banmankhi - Bihariganj (M.G.) |
Security
| Security on Railways has been a matter of concern and Hon'ble Members
have also been expressing their dissatisfaction in this regard. Although the subject of
law and order on the railways falls under the purview of the State Governments, we have
been constantly striving to improve the coordination between the Government Railway Police
(GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF). In this regard, I had also convened a high level
meeting of Home Secretaries of State Governments, Heads of GRP and the officers of the RPF
in August 1998. With these coordination efforts, the situation is likely to improve. |
| Improvements are also being made in the functioning of the RPF and
necessary action has been initiated to give more investigative powers to the officers of
RPF. Approval has already been given for setting up two additional battalions for the
Railway Protection Special Force (RPSF) and it is proposed to add another two battalions
in future. |
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Association of Railway Protection Force
| Hon'ble Members may recall that the Railway Protection Force, for quite
some time, has been requesting recognition of their association. This issue has also been
raised in this House. I am glad to inform that recognition to Railway Protection Force
Association has been restored. |
Annual Plan 1999-2000
| The Plan outlay for 1999-2000 has been kept at Rs. 9,700 cr. This implies
an increase of Rs. 945 cr over the Revised Estimate of last year. This increase in plan
outlay has been possible due to increase in Capital from the General Exchequer to the
level of Rs. 2,540 cr as against Rs. 2,200 cr in the previous year. In percentage terms,
this is 26% of Plan outlay which is the highest since 1993-94. I would like to thank the
Hon'ble Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and the Planning Commission for this increase
in Capital Support from the General Exchequer. However, I would earnestly request the
Finance Minister to increase this support by another Rs. 200 cr so that, in this
"Passenger year", we are in a position to serve the passengers in still better
ways. I do hope that the Finance Minister will accede to my request. I am sure the
passengers will also join me in thanking the Finance Minister. |
| As far as internal resource generation by the Railways is concerned, I
mentioned earlier that the working expenses of Railways have increased after acceptance of
the recommendations of the Fifth Central Pay Commission. The working expenses in 1999-2000
cannot remain unaffected by this. Moreover, the trend of growth of freight traffic has
also slowed down. This has resulted in reduced generation of internal resources which are
not sufficient to meet the plan requirement. I therefore propose to withdraw Rs. 1,000 cr
from the Railways' Fund balances. As in previous years, extra budgetary resources, mainly
through market borrowings by the Indian Railway Finance Corporation, will provide the
balance requirements for the Plan. |
| Sir, the thrust of this Annual Plan is on Safety. The outlay on Track
Renewal Plan Head has been increased to Rs. 1500 cr which is 19 % over Revised Estimates,
1998-99. Maintaining the trend of last year to expedite track circuiting and other safety
related works, allocation under Signal & Telecommunication Plan Head has been
increased from previous year's Revised Estimate of Rs. 325 cr to Rs. 375 cr. In view of
the importance of doubling of track for increasing line capacity, the allocation for this
Plan Head has been raised from Rs. 472 cr to Rs. 625 cr which is an increase of 32%. To
improve passenger amenities, the allocation under Passenger Amenities Plan Head has been
increased by 45% as compared to the Revised Estimates. For speedier progress of
metropolitan transport projects in Calcutta, Chennai and Mumbai, allocation of Rs. 300 cr
has been made, representing an increase of 52% over the previous year. |
| To extend rail network to new areas of the country, Rs. 600 cr have been
allocated under the Plan Head New Lines, representing an increase of 59% over the Revised
Estimates. In the beginning of the current decade, project 'Unigauge' was launched. Under
this scheme, 8,363 km track has been converted to broad gauge till 1998-99. A provision of
Rs. 645 cr has been made for gauge conversion in the next year. |
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New Projects
| As you are aware, at present Indian Railways have pending projects
involving outlay of about Rs. 34,000 cr, out of which new line projects and gauge
conversion projects are about Rs. 20,000 cr and Rs. 9,000 cr respectively. Keeping this in
view, recently Railway Ministry has, after the approval of Cabinet, determined the
priorities of projects. The allocation of funds for various projects has been made not
only on the basis of operational requirement but also keeping in view the development of
backward areas. As far as possible, regional balance has also been kept in view. |
| Last year, when I took charge of the Railway Ministry, the Railways had a
large number of projects which did not have necessary approvals. I am happy to inform the
House that during the year, necessary clearances have been received for many projects.
These are as follows :- |
| New Lines
| Koderma to Giridih |
| Macherla to Nalgonda |
| Angamali to Sabarmati via Erumeli |
| Lalitpur to Satna, Rewa-Singrauli and Khajuraho-Mahoba |
| Diphu to Karong |
| Ranchi to Koderma via Hazaribagh |
| Dharmavaram to Penukonda via Puttaparthy |
| Chandigarh to Ludhiana |
| Taran Taran to Goindwal |
| Kalka to Parvanoo |
| Bishrampur to Ambikapur |
| Baramati to Lonand |
| Bangalore to Satyamangalam |
| Bidar to Gulbarga |
| Gadwal to Raichur |
| Dumka to Baidyanathdham |
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| Gauge Conversion
| Jaynagar-Darbhanga-Narkatiaganj |
| Madurai-Rameswaram |
| Quilon-Tirunelveli-Trichendur-Tenkasi-Virudunagar |
| Katakhal-Bhairabi |
| New Jalpaiguri-Siliguri-New Bongaigaon |
| Bankura-Damodar Railway Line |
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| Doubling
| Yeshwantpur-Tumkur |
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| Railway Electrification
| Lucknow-Kanpur |
| Kusunda-Jamunia Tand |
| Ludhiana-Amritsar |
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| Hon'ble Members would recall that during the Budget discussions last
year, the dilemma faced by Railways, whether in view of shortage of resources the railways
should continue to satisfy the demands for new works or they should consolidate the rail
infrastructure and give greater priority to safety and modernisation was discussed. A
policy level decision on this subject has now become essential. In the "Status
Paper" and "White Paper" also, it has been brought out that even now we
have a large number of old pending projects. Possibly, there cannot be an easy solution
for this dilemma because the development of backward areas is necessary and new demands
keep coming. However, in this Budget we are making an effort that first we strengthen our
existing railway system so that safety is improved, railway operation becomes effective
and we are able to technologically upgrade and modernise the railways. Despite this,
wherever possible we have tried to meet new demands also. |
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