Nagpur News.

The union rail budget for 2014-15 presented on Tuesday has couple of new developments that signals the transformation of railways, however it remains to be seen how far the train of announcement goes. Nagpur has been hoping for a Nagpur-Delhi train which bore no fruits, however there is some respite as it gets a slew of high speed trains which will run at the speed of 160-200 kmph. The city gets two new high speed trains originating from here. These include Nagpur-Bilaspur and Nagpur-Secunderabad trains. Besides, there will be a weekly train from Nagpur to Pune. There was also a proposal for high speed train on Kanpur-Nagpur route.

The bullet train has also been proposed on identified Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector. The railway minister has said that bullet trains are a priority.

Reacting on Modi government’s first railway budget, Ravi Agrawal, Group Chairman, L7 Group of Companies said infrastructural development of railways is the need of the hour as railway is the lifeline our country. “We need to stress more on quality of service rather than quantity. As we see in many developed nations, the focus remains on delivering quality of service,” he said adding, “Citizens should also stop complaining about increasing fares and be ready to pay if they want quality in service.”

Sharing his expectations over upcoming general budget on Thursday, Agrawal said the prime focus on general budget should be upon reducing fiscal deficit. “And I feel the best way to balance fiscal deficit is to decrease import and increase export across all the sectors. This will resolve major problems of the country. For example, we should move towards constructing cement road instead of tar road as the petrochemicals for tar road are imported from foreign lands. Also cement roads are constructed for 25 years while tar road lasts hardly for 5 years.”

Taking the discussion further Agrawal said, “Secondly, I wish there should be equality among all the castes in the country as the situation is quite changed as compared to the times during Independence when there was dearth of equal opportunity to all. It’s high time everyone should be treated equally and reservation in caste should be shunted out.”

Airing his views Sarvesh Agrawal, Director at INIFD, a fashion designing institute here, said while he found nothing much in railway budget, he was hopeful of general budget being wide and friendly across all sectors. Talking about his expectation in education sector, he said, “The government should certainly look towards opening doors for more foreign universities to set up their campuses in India. This will help a great deal in taking country’s education level to global standards. Let’s hope the government should do something to make our citizens global competent.”
Highlights of Rail Budget 2014:

-I am grateful to PM Narendra Modi for having reposed his faith in me, I promise to fulfill this responsibility

-Indian Railways is the nation’s prime mover

-Indian Railways cuts across all barriers of class and creed

-I am flooded with request and suggestions for new trains, new rail lines

-Everybody feels that there is a solution to the challenges that the Indian Railways faces

-Quotes Kautilya “ïn the happiness of the people lies the happiness of the ruler”

-Indian Railways carries 23 million passengers

-Run 4700 freight trains with 3 million tonnes of freight everyday

-Target to become the largest freight carrier in the world

-Indian Railways carries anything and everything, it never says no to anything if it fits the wagons

-We carry over 1 billion tonnes of freight every year

-Freight business has grown but IR carries only 31% of total freight movement in the country

-Network of 1.16 lakh km, 63,000 passenger coaches, more than 2 lakh wagons and over 13 lakh employees

-Gross receipts in 2013-14 were Rs 139,558 cr, expenditure was 130,320 cr

-Indian Railways has an operating ratio of 94%

-This means we spent 95% of every rupee earned

-Loss in passenger sector was 23 paisa per km, freight rates were increased to compensate

-In the last ten years 99 new line projects were sanctioned out of which only 1 project is complete, there are 4 projects that are as old as 30 years

-If this trend is allowed to continue it would lead to spending of many more crores without returns

-41,000 cr was spent on laying of new lines but spent only 18,000 cr on doubling of tracks, though it was a priority over new lines

-Indian Railways is starved of funds despite 100% advance payment by customers

-Mismanagement led to severe fund crunch

-Dilemma between choosing commercial viability and social viability

-Time to take corrective actions, fare revision was one such step

-Fare revision will bring in 8000 cr but IR needs more than 9 lakh crore only to complete the golden quadrilateral project

-Only hiking fares is unrealistic, will work on Railways PSUs

-Private investment in railway infrastructure – domestic as well as foreign

-FDI in railways except railway operation

-PPP route to generate revenue

-Our target is to finance bulk of future projects through PPP mode

-Support for timely completion of projects

-Gross traffic receipt grew by 12 % but revenue target could not be reached

-Internal resource generation was around 11,000 cr, short of target by over 2000 cr

-Operating ratio deteriorated by 2.7%

-Budget estimates

-Anticipating a healthier economy. Gross receipt estimate pegged at Rs 164,374 cr, expenditure at 149,176 cr, freight growth of 4.9%, an incrementation of 51% over last year

-Anticipate small growth in passenger grower

-Freight revenue estimate at 157,770, passenger traffic revenue estimate at 44,645 cr

-Thank FM for increasing resource allocation by 1,100 cr in 2013-14

-Large part of higher plan outlay will go to improve safety

-Plan to scale down market borrowing to around 1,100 cr

-Maximum financial outlay to projects that are scheduled to be completed this year

-Allocate resources to high priority areas like safety, cleanliness, capacity augmentation

-Foot over bridges, escalators at all major stations through PPP mode, toilets, water shelters at all stations

-Involve NGOs to improve passenger amenities

-Work stations in select trains, pilot project this year

-Expanding scope of online booking

-Railways have been attaching high priority to cleanliness but it has always been a challenges

-40% increase in budget allocation for the same

-Outsource cleanliness at 50 major stations, cleanliness will be monitored by CCTV cameras

-Onboard house keeping currently available in select trains will be introduced in all trains

-1785 cr collocation for road under- and over- bridges

-Speedy clearances on first come, first serve basis

-Action to eliminate all level crossings

-Ultrasonic system to detect fault in tracks

-Technology for automatic clsing of doors both in main line and suburban sections

-17000 RPF personnel have been recruited, 4000 women RPF constables would be recruited – coaches meant for ladies will be escorted

-RPF personnel will be provided with mobiles so that passengers can contact them in times of distress

-New tourist circuit to be introduced

-Special train to propagate the teachings of swami Vivekananda

-Ticketing through post offices will be popularized

-e-ticketing mechanism will be strengthened to allow 120,000 simultaneous bookings

-Special scheme for meritorious wards of railway personnel

-Railway university for both technical and non-technical subjects

-Drinking water facility at all stations

-Endeavor to fulfill the long cherished dream of bullet trains

-Bullet trains on Mumbai-Ahmedabad section

-Ambitious plan to have a diamond quadrilateral high speed rail network – 100 cr allocated in budget

-Increase in speed of trains to 160 to 200 kilometers per hour on select sectors

-Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Kanpur
Nagpur-Bilaspur, Mysore-Bangalore-Chennai, Nagpur-Secunderabad

-Develop international standard stations in 10 major cities and important junctions

-Over 33% freight runs run empty, discount to customers who will provide returning traffic

-Parcel traffic would be segregated to separate terminals to decongest platforms

– New design for parcel vans is being finalized

-Policy of private freight terminals through PPP mode is being finalized

-10 temperature-controlled warehouses at 10 locations in first phase to prevent wastage of fruit and vegetables

-Indian Railways will start using biodiesel upto 5% of total consumption in diesel locomotives

-Project management group to be set up at railway board level to monitor execution of projects

-E-procurement to be made compulsory for procurement worth Rs 25 lakh and above

-Substantial higher funds for projects in Northeast – 54% jump in allocation over the previous year

-WiFi in A1 and A category stations & in select trains. Internet-based Platform & Unreserved Tickets

-864 more EMUs for Mumbai suburban network

-Bayapanhalli to be developed as a coach terminal near Bangalore

-Projects worth over Rs 20,000 are at various stages in Telangana and AP. They will be completed

-18 surveys for new lines, 10 surveys for doubling-tripling of lines in 2013-2014

-Train connectivity to Kedarnath-Badrinath to be examined

-5 new Jansadharans, 5 premium trains, 6 AC express, 27 express trains, 8 passenger trains, 2 MEMU trains, 5 DEMUs

-Extend run of 11 trains