Railway Budget: Suresh Prabhu May Focus on Raising More Resources

New Delhi: With Railway finances under terrible strain, all eyes will be focused on whether Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will hike the fares and freight rates in the Rail Budget on Thursday. The Modi government in June last year had increased passenger fares by 14.2 per cent and freight by 6.5 per cent.

Though there has been a decrease in diesel price, electricity cost has gone up by over 4 per cent making it a balancing act for the fuel adjustment cost (FAC)-linked tariff revision policy adopted by Railways since 2013.

Keeping with the NDA government's bullet train promise, Mr Prabhu could announce the way forward for the ambitious high-speed train project between Mumbai-Ahmedabad and survey programmes for the proposed diamond quadrilateral route.

Considered a reformer, Mr Prabhu may lay a roadmap for attracting private investment for the public transporter, which badly needs funds for completion of many crucial rail projects. He may also announce proposals for 'Make in India' initiatives, besides enhancing safety and security.

Currently, there are 676 railway projects worth Rs 1,57,883 crore sanctioned and out of these, only 317 projects could be completed and 359 projects remain to be completed which will now require as much as Rs 1.82 lakh crore. Given the funds constraints, he is likely to go slow in announcing new trains and projects in the budget.

The Railway Budget is expected to propose the provision for Wi-Fi on rail premises.

Besides seeking increased gross budgetary support of about Rs 50,000 crore for the 2015-16 fiscal, Railways has sought Rs 20,000 crore from the finance ministry as safety fund to do away with unmanned level crossings, a major reason for train mishaps across the country, sources said.

Mr Prabhu may announce joint venture mechanism for implementing projects involving state governments and other external agencies.

As the railway minister, he has stressed on improvement in passenger amenities before increasing fares. There could be a series of measures including utilisation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to improve amenities at rail premises.

Mr Prabhu is expected to focus on tapping more revenue channels and could announce some innovative ways for raising resources through non-tariff methods like increasing revenues from advertisements and leveraging surplus land among others. A committee led by former Banking and Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal, constituted by Mr Prabhu, has already submitted recommendations for the new fund raising and revenue models, like running of trains like Haldiram Express, Coca Cola Express.

In line with the 'Swachh Bharat' campaign, the Rail Budget is likely to give special attention on cleanliness exercise and a slew of measures like provision for dustbins in all coaches besides proposal to cover 100 more trains under 'On-Board Housekeeping Services'. Bio-toilets in trains and stations could be covered under the Clean Train Station Scheme.

The Budget is likely announce plans for manufacturing coaches to run at a 200-km per hour speed at its Chennai facility in keeping with the Modi government's 'Make in India' initiative.

Redevelopment of about 100 stations, leveraging empty spaces for construction of marketing complex and other commercial projects may also be on the cards. Introduction of AC rakes in the inter-city services to make the journey more comfortable could also be proposed in the Rail Budget.