Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu chose not to take the bitter pill of fare hikes on Thursday in the 2016 Railway Budget, and vowed to continue with his big investment-push to turn around Railways as a major engine for India’s economic growth.
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The planned budget outlay for the railways would be 1.21 trillion rupees ($17.6 billion), up about 20 percent from the current year’s estimated expenditure.
Presenting his second Budget in Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu promised to rationalise the tariff structure to evolve competitive rates vis-a-vis other modes of transportation and also expand the freight basket as a means of achieving additional revenue mobilisation.
In the budget speech, Prabhu set a target of 12.4% increase in passenger earnings and announced that the railways is aiming to carry 50 million extra tonnes of freight as compared to a year ago. Prabhu said the draft bill will be ready for this after holding discussions with stakeholders. Indian Railways is partnering with NABARD to provide support and access to our IRCTC website to ensure extensive e- marketing for products produced by the self-help groups which would lead to increase in rural incomes. With a bit of help and the full benefits of the systemic changes proposed in this budget, Indian Railways may just become an outlier.
As many as 44 new projects valued at Rs 92,714 crore to be implemented this year.
It appears that Prabhu will have to depend mostly on the External Budgetary Resources (EBR) for execution of the capacity augmentation projects and he will give details of his resource mobilisation plan in the Rail Budget 2016-17.
The Associated Chambers (ASSOCHAM) is expecting that passengers charges may be hiked in this railway budget.
Indian Railways is switching over to paperless contract management system where not only the bids are invited online but the entire process is also done electronically. Journalists will also benefit for travelling on concessional passes. “It is a very well thought out Railway Budget, makes clear its contribution to nation’s economy”. This will enable real-time flow of information to passengers and also unlock huge advertising potential.
Former Railway Minister and present Union Law Minister Sadananda Gowda said the budget would give best results in the future.
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“India’s first rail auto hub to come up in Chennai”. The actual revenue generated, however, is Rs 45,384 crore only.
