Other highlights in the areas of passenger amenities are: no increase in fair and freight rates for now, introduction of four brands of trains, Humsafar, Tejas, Uday and Antodaya, use of a clean-my-coach service, use of SMS by passengers to get cleaning staff to clean a coach during the journey, bar coded tickets and scanners to help to check ticketless travel and also reduce hassles of passengers, cancellation of tickets on phone using the 139 helpline, setting up of 1,780 automatic ticket vending machines, disabled friendly toilets at stations, hot milk water and baby food at stations, 33 percent quota for women in reserved quota, increase by 50 per cent in quota for senior citizens, elimination of all unmanned level crossings by 2020, introduction of 17,000 bio-toilets and additional toilets at 475 stations by March 2016, wifi at 100 stations this year and 400 stations next year, enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system from 2000 tickets/minute to 7,200/minute supporting 1.2 lakh users now, as opposed to 40,000 earlier.
Other passenger friendly measures are introduction of Deen Dayal coaches for long distance trains for unreserved passengers, catering management by IRCTC, local cuisines of choice to passengers, GPS based display of upcoming stations in coaches, opening of cancellation of tickets through 139 helpline number, overnight double-decker trains on business travel routes and so on.
Mr. Prabhu enumerated three focuses of his budget were revenue, norms and structure while setting ambitious target of annual investment of Rs. 1.2 lakh crore and to generate Rs.1.84 lakh crore in earnings (turnovers) from fare, freight and sundry sources. The Minister also announced that Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has committed an investment of Rs.1.5 lakh crore. The Minister also announced 2800 kilometres of new tracks to be commissioned in 2016-17 compared to 1000 kms of such tracks by Mamata Banerjee, never accomplished, as the annual average of new lines was 200 kms annually since Independence. Some other announcements included 1,600 kms of electrification this year, 2,000kms next year, and fast tracking of rail connectivity in the North-East. The Minister also announced formation of a dedicated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a body, to oversee completion of high-speed tracks for fructification of Bullet Trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
What ever it is, the rail budget is like a corporate budget and designed to raise cost of rail services with a conspicuous signs of Indian Railways’ march to corporatization and for that matter it is business friendly. Yet it has failed to cheer the capital market!
India
RAIL BUDGET 2016-17: HIGH ON RHETORICS LOW ON GROUND REALITY
M.Y.Siddiqui - 2016-02-25 17:12
The rail budget 2016-17, announced by the Union Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu, in Parliament today (February 25, 2016), is high on rhetorics and low on ground reality with promises galore in view of acute financial crunch, as also on account of facts how the railways would mobilize resources of meeting massive challenges of high capital investments, as it is already under a debt trap and with ambitious challenges of its projected goals with the decennial increase in the pay and perks of railways work force under the Seventh Pay Commission awards having a potential of drowning the railways further deep under the debt trap. Another pertinent question relates to 15 percent rise in unit costs as well as service costs despite decreasing High Speed Diesel costs, benefits of which have not been given to the rail users in view of the professed policy of the Fuel Adjustment Cost (FAC).