Presenting his fifth consecutive Railway Budget, Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a record surplus of Rs 25,000 crores for FY-08. In a major bonanza, he announced a cut in passenger fares. First-class A/C fares will be down 7%, A/C 2 down 4% and A/C 3 will see a reduction of 2%. Second Class fares have been cut by 5% for tickets beyond 50 kms. Lalu also gave a concession of 5% on petrol and diesel in freight. 53 new Mail and Express trains and 10 Garib Raths have also been introduced.
Lalu said the Railways had made a tremendous turnaround and announced a profit of Rs 68,778 crores in the last five years. The minister said he was proud that Rs 15,000 crores had been paid as dividend to the government in the same period. Lalu then unveiled a futuristic vision to make Railways a modern enterprise.
Following are the highlights of the Railway Budget 2008-09:
Balance Sheet
Cash surplus of Rs 25,000 crore for FY08 Additional 20,000 cr earned on freight service Railway Fund Balance up 2,000 cr Rail Plan soars from 11,000 cr to 33,000 cr Rs 49,250 crores spent as investment on new projects Operating Ratio of 76% IRCON International is doing extremely well Second in profit terms is RITES RailTel has now also become profitable Freight - Achieved 790 tonne payload target
- Wagon turnaround led to a profit of Rs 233 cr
- 3000 new bogies for freight trains
- Uncoaching earning to increase to 4000 cr
- Shipping and road transport companies were allowed to run dedicated trains
- Freight loading increased by 10%
- Freight income target is now Rs 44,0000 cr
- Uncoaching target of 20,000 cr
- 160% increase in a decade in freight loading
- 1000 mn tonnes target for freight loading
- Special fund for coal and steel corridor
- 75000 cr to be spent on this including East and West dedicated freight corridor
- 336 mn tonne coal freight target in FY09
- New wagon lease plan
- Wagons to be available for lease for 20 yrs
- Leasing companies to have all the freedom
- Companies to get rebate if they lease
- New project for bulk handling of perishables; new terminals to be developed for this
- New projects to be developed on private land; if at all in Railway land then the developer has to pay for the land
- 120 mn tonne freight from steel, target is 200 mn tonne by FY11
- Freight target of 200 mn tonne cement
- Ludhiana-Howrah and Delhi-NPT dedicated freight corridors
- Others to be taken up to give proper access to ports
- 7 new container depots planned
- BRM 22.9 tonne axle load wagons to be developed
Infrastructure DevelopmentTo improve running of trains; new system to be developed To develop online train control sysytem in two yrs To link trains via IT communications by 2009 Management of resources will be made easy; to complete integration in next 5 yrs Rs 250000 cr allocated for IT in next 5yrs LHB coaches in all Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains. This will improve speed and comfort After 2010 only stainless steel coaches; production by 2008-09 Mail, Express trains to have stainless steel coaches Express trains to have public address systems On board cleaning system in every Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Mail and Superfast trains; to be done by a professional agencies 281 low-level and 203 medium-level platform in B-category stations to be converted into high-level platforms and gradually in other stations Platform shelter/sheds in all 448 D-level stations 195 stations to get footover bridges Platform length to be increased Multilevel parking in 30 big stations 50 big stations to have lift and escalators 20000 new wagons in FY09 250 new locomotives FY09 Stainless steel bodies even for wagons New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal, Patna and Sikandarabd to be developed as world-class stations at a cost of Rs 15000 cr New JV with NTPC for captive power is delivering well New rail coach factory in Kerala, to cater to Metro train coaches and other needs Kerala govt has given 1000 acre free land for factory New wagon repair factory in Chapra New land acquisition policy to make the process easy
Plans
Automatic signalling system in Ghaziabad-Kanpur section to increase traffic Kota-Bina line survey Raipur-Titlagarh doubling Nagpur-Gondia automatic signaling Hardaspur-Piplav new line Surat-Hazira new line SPVs will be for 30 yrs Hassan-Mangalore line completed Haldia Port on radar for improved connection Bellary-Hopspet doubling Baspani-Haridaspur doubling DalliRajhara-Rowghat line to be completed Bhanupalli-Bilaspur new line in HP New coaches in all Rajdhani trains by 2010 New coaches in all Shatabdi trains by 2011 In next 6 months, new document Vision 2025 to be released Vision plan to focus on integration of all departments 50 big terminals to be upgraded Golden Quadrilateral to be strengthened New PPP schemes to increase revenue Unused land to be developed and revenue through this PPP to be 4000 cr Total revenue from PPP schemes to be 25000 cr
Facilities for Passengers
New call centres to be added Online linking between control centers and call centers To start a new system online coach display board by March 09 in all Mail Express trains, which will show the next station and the time remaining to reach there LED displays in all A category station, in B class station display station Green toilets in all 36000 trains by the end of next Five Year Plan at a cost of 4,000 cr 'Go Mumbai' smart card for Mumbai suburban trains, to start from next month Smart Tickets to be extended from Western Railways to all others Automatic ticket sale machines to be increased from 250 to 6,000 in two years Destination arrival time will also be mentioned in tickets Long-run stations to display next stations, ETA from 2009 Online arrival, departure display facility by March 2009 Mother-Child Health Express to be introduced Mulling ticket booking and confirmation via mobile phones E-ticket booking up at 3 lakh vs 1 lakh a year earlier 15,000 computer ticket counters in two years vs 3,000 now
Rebates
50% concession for AIDS patients 30% rebate for male senior citizens 50% for women senior citizens instead of 30% Paramveer Charka and Ashok Charka winners along with companion can use their card now even in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to travel free Girls to get free season tickets till graduation Free tickets for male students till Class XII
Safety
Close circuit cameras at all important stations Decrease in accident rate from 0.28% to 0.23% New bridges, new signalling system to be completed to bring down accident rate further To remove human error ACS is being developed, and new track testing system is being worked ACS was tried out in NF railways, it has been encouraging Now in SC, WR to try out ACS Rail Impact detectors are being developed Analogue machines to be replaced by digital machines for signalling Unmanned crossing to be eliminated in double lines by building RoB; will do it on its own through BoT as state govts are not helping with funds 16600 level crossings, 18000 unmanned crossings; pose greatest danger. Plan to man most of the unmanned crossings
Railway Workers
Vacant posts to be filled up in GRP GRP to get new weapons & equipments In Group D out of 6000 new appointments 5000 are from SC/ST Gangman to be promoted to man-level crossings Coolies to be promoted as gangmen Pay bonus for employees increased from 65 days to 70 days Railway hospitals to be upgraded Staff benefit fund to be Rs 350/employee for FY09 Staff benefit fund to be upped 10 times in FY09 To provide CFL bulbs in six lakh staff quarters
Miscellaneous Kalka-Shimla Railway to get UNESCO world heritage status; focus to be on tourism Tie-up with China Railways; working for Trans-Asian Railway Project Orders from six countries for Indian rail coaches
Lalu Speak
We have turned the Indian Railways into a profit making organisation Railways has done tremendous work Railways has generated huge surplus owing to the well-thought policies of the UPA government We are working on increasing the productivity of the railway workers We have increased the productivity of railway assets We thought out of the box to deliver record breaking performance We have turned out to be the cheapest mass transporters in country We played the volume game to earn profit Everyone has appreciated my work for the betterment of Railways I have diligently worked on raising the bar high and increasing our profits Wagons have been improved
