New Delhi: The Railway Board is considering a proposal to allow private players to own, operate and execute railway lines, senior officials of the national transporter said on Thursday, as the Union Budget earmarked the highest-ever capital expenditure of Rs 1.48 lakh crore to it.
Sources say the proposal includes allowing private sector to invest in full projects, with railways only charging a licence fee for it.
“I would want the participation of private players in the railway sector. Why not? They will only improve our efficiency and bring in bigger investments,” railway minister Piyush Goyal said, when asked about the plans to allow private players to own and operate railway lines on their own.
About Rs 1.48 lakh crore has been allocated for 2018-19 in the Budget for the railways against Rs 1.31 lakh crore allocated during previous year’s Budget, but Goyal plans to mobilise financial resources for the planned expenditure, particularly by accruing private sector investments.
“We are going to improve efficiency. Losses can be made up through efficiency,” the minister told a press briefing.
He attributed much of the delay in railways to the 150- year-old signalling system. Goyal said the railway board has already taken a decision to modernise the entire signalling system.
“ETCS (European Train Control System) II, which is the most modern signalling system in the world will be brought to India. In the next 5-6 years as the system is put in place, there will be no delays due to fog anymore,” he said.
The minister also said India’s most ambitious indigenous train set, which are being built in Chennai, are on track and the first such train which will run at a speed of 176 km/hr will become operational in September 2018.
“In this government, work doesn’t stop. My guess is that as we stabilise our technology, in the near future we will make as many as 100 such train sets per year,” he said.
German-make Linke-Hofmann-Busch passenger coaches named “Train 18” and “Train 20” in consonance with the year of their production, the completely indigenous coaches, are designed to run at a top speed of 160 kmph. These two trains, once operational are aimed at replacing the Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.
On a lighter note, the minister when asked if AC wait- listed passengers would be upgraded to flights - he said, “Idea acha hai. (It’s agood idea)” “So you don’t want your tickets to be confirmed?” he asked.
“No, no, I do not miss presenting the Railway Budget separately. In fact, these announcements in many ways have caused problems for the Railways. It was a political exercise.”
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal
Rlys sets target operating ratio of 92.8 pc for 2018-19
The Indian Railways has set a target operating ratio of 92.8 per cent for 2018-19, as compared to 96 per cent last year.
The operating ratio shows how much of revenue goes into meeting expenses. Lower the ratio better it is for the railways.
The excess of revenue over expenditure in 2018-19 is Rs 12,990 crore. It is estimated that the total revenue receipts in 2018-19 will be increased by 7 per cent to Rs 2,01,090 crore.
Asked about the target of achieving 85 per cent operating ratio by 2022, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said that it can be achieved only through efficiency.
“We intend to achieve this target through increased capacity, efficient planning. Once the signalling system is changed, that itself will have a transformational impact both on safety and on capacity,” he said.
The railways’ Gross Traffic Receipts are also expected to increase by 7 per cent to Rs 2,00,840 crore. Sundry other earnings are also likely increase by 49 per cent to Rs 20,790 crore.
The ministry has high hopes on freight earnings with an estimated increase of 51 MT in 2018-19.
The incremental loading is expected to be 45 MT in April-January 2018, over the same period last year. In January itself, the railways has seen an incremental loading of 6 MT.
All these factors indicate towards sustainable railway operations, officials said.
The financial year of 2017-18 has witnessed a reversal of the tendency of low growth in freight loading over the previous two years.
The total revenue expenditure in 2018-19 is set to increase by 4 per cent to Rs 1,88,100 crore.
Other major components like ordinary working expenses (Rs 1,38,000 crore), appropriation to DRF (Rs 500 crore) and appropriation to Pension Fund from Revenue (Rs 47,500 crore) are included.
To reduce accumulated backlog in capacity creation, the government is drastically scaling up investment by almost three times to Rs 1,46,500 crore in 2018-19 against Rs 53,989 crore in 2013-14, a statement from the railways said.
This is 22 per cent higher than 2017-18 (RE), and includes budgetary support of Rs 53,060 crore, internal resources of Rs 11,500 crore. Indian Railway Finance Corporation to raise Rs 28,500 crore, Institutional Finance (LIC) to support with Rs 26,440 crore and investment through PPP of Rs 27,000 crore.
The government has provided Rs 19,40 crore towards re- imbursement of losses on operation of strategic lines and Rs 88 crore towards reimbursement of operational cost of e- ticketing to IRCTC.
I don’t miss presenting Railway Budget: Piyush Goyal
New Delhi, Feb 1: today said he does “not miss presenting the Railway Budget” in Parliament which was just a “political exercise”.
The 92-year old custom of presenting rail budget and general budget separately was scrapped by the Narendra Modi government on September 21, 2016.
Goyal said on the sidelines of a media briefing.
Asked if he wanted to introduce any train with which his name would be associated with, the minister said he was not bothered about it, and passenger safety was paramount for him.
“I do not have any fascination for names. What I want to ensure is passenger safety and comfort... And the bullet train is coming,” he said.
Goyal said requests for new trains and routes regularly come to his office and he considers the feasibility of most.
