New Delhi: As he presents his first rail budget, Dinesh Trivedi has his task cut out. His focus, he says, is three-pronged: "Safety, safety, safety." Following very closely behind are consolidation, decongestion and modernisation.
The following are the highlights the employment opportunities and passenger friendly measures that the Rail Budget 2012 proposes:
- Exp train fare up by 5 paise per km, 10 paise per km for AC chair car, 10 paise per km for AC 3-tier, 15 p per km for AC 2-tier, 30 paise per km for AC First class.
- No steep increase in passenger fares; 2 paisa per km for suburban trains; 3 paisa per km for mail and express trains.
- All Garib Rath trains to have one special AC coach for differently abled persons.
- All out efforts to improve hygiene in trains and stations in next six months.
- Special housekeeping body to be set up to maintain stations and trains.
- Improvement of passenger amenities at a cost of Rs.1,112 crore; regional cuisines to be introduced.
- World Bank funding of R.6,500 crore firmed up for dedicated freight corridors; land acquired for 3,300 km; first contracts to be handed out during 2012-13
- Standard of hygiene needs to be improved substantially; all out efforts will be made on this in the next six months; duty bound to provide high standard of services; special housekeeping body to be set up for stations and trains.
- Corrosion from night soil being discharged from toilets on tracks costs Rs.350 crore annually; green toilets to be installed in 2,500 coaches in the next one year.
- Independent tariff authority suggested; needs serious debate; experts panel established; decision after debate in parliament.
- GRP/RPF personnel deployed on 3,500 trains.
- Free travel by Rajdhani express for Arjuna awardees.
- Targeting freight carriage of 1,025 million tonnes to bring in Rs.89,339 crore; passenger earnings estimated at Rs.36,073 crore; gross receipts estimated at Rs.1.32 lakh crore.
- Excess of Rs.1,492 crore after meeting expenses/dividend payments not adequate for meeting costs of several projects.
- Dedicated railway design wing at National Institute of Design with a contribution of Rs.10 crore.
- New passenger services: 820 new items; 75 new express trains; 21 new passenger trains; 75 new services in Mumbai suburban system.
- Guru Parikrama trains to be run to Amritsar, Patna and Nanded.
- Passenger fare for sub-urban trains hiked by 2 paise per km, mail trains by 3 paise per km.
- Platform tickets to cost Rs. five.
- 50 per cent concession in fare in AC classes to anaemia and sickle cell disease patients.
- Body of experts to examine setting up of an independent Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority
- No steep increase in passenger fares: Railway Minister.
- Finance Ministry agrees to loan Rs. 3,000 crore to Railways at 8.55 per cent interest: Trivedi
- Gross rail traffic targeted to increase by Rs. 28,635 crore to Rs. 1,32,552 crore in 2012-13.
- Passenger earnings to increase to Rs. 36,200 crore. Gross traffic receipts Rs. 1,32,552 crore.
- Railways to carry 55 million tons more freight at 1025 million tonnes in 2012-13.
- Surplus with railways at Rs. 1,492 crore in current year as against targeted Rs. 5,258 crore.
- Expansion of suburban rail networks and addition of more services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
- Guru Parikarma special trains to cover Sikh pilgrimage centres of Amritsar, Patna and Nanded.
- 75 new express passenger trains to be introduced.
- Railway Board to be restructured, two more members to be included.
- Railways to recruit more than one lakh persons in 2012-13.
- Railways to replace open discharge toilets with green toilets. 2,500 coaches will be equipped with bio-toilets next year.
- Two thousand one hundred specially designed coaches manufactured to meet needs of the differently abled; aim to provide one such coach in each express train.
- Electrification to be undertaken over 6,500 km at an allocation of Rs.8,000 crore during 12th Plan.
- Conversion from DC to AC power supply completed in Western Railway corridor of Mumbai suburban rail system; conversion of Central Railway corridor to be completed in 2012-13.
- Elevated corridor from Churchgate to Virar in Mumbai being firmed up.
- Government should consider dividend payback to railways.
- Thirty-one projects over 5,000 km being implemented with state governments sharing costs.
- Capacity augmentation to get Rs.4,410 crore during 2012-13.
- Eighty-five new line projects to be taken up during 2012-13.
- One hundred and fourteen new line surveys to be undertaken during 2012-13.
- New line projects to get Rs.6,870 crore in 2012-13.
- Gauge conversion to be undertaken over 800 km with an allocation of Rs.1,950 crore.
- Focus during next five years on five areas: tracks, bridges, signalling, rolling stock and stations.
- Signalling to be improved over 19,000 km.
- Investment of Rs.1.70 lakh crore on rolling stock in next five years.
- Attempt to increase train speeds to 160 kmph; journey time from New Delhi to Kolkata can be brought down to 14 hours from 17 hours.
- Improvements to railway stations can provide employment to 50,000 people.
- Outlay of Rs.60,100 crore during 2012-13, the highest ever.
- Railways will require Rs.14 lakh crore in the next 10 years for modernisation.
- Aim to bring down operating ratio from 90 percent to 84.9 percent in 2012-13 and to 72 percent by 2016-17.
- Time has come for formulating national policy for railways on the lines of that for defence and external affairs.
- Railways should grow at 10 percent annually for sustained GDP growth.
- Railways to invest Rs.7.35 lakh crore during 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), a quantum jump from the Rs.1.92 lakh crore invested in previous plan period.
- Railways must attract 10 percent of the Rs.20 lakh crore government expects to spend on infrastructure during 12th Plan.
- Railways expect gross budgetary support of Rs.2.5 lakh crore during 12th Plan.
- Collective challenge to formulate viable funding mechanism for modernisation.
- Railways should contribute 2 percent of GDP from the present 1 percent.
- Stress on strengthening safety. Has to be be benchmarked with the best in the world.
- Target of reducing accidents from 0.55 to 0.17 has been met.
- Special purpose vehicle to be set up on safety protocols.
- Independent railway safety authority to be set up as statutory safety body.
- Investment of Rs.5.60 lakh crore required for modernisation.
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