The government will move ahead with the listing of the railway public sector undertakings (PSUs)—Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. (IRCTC), Indian Railway Construction Co. Ltd (IRCON) and Indian Railway Finance Corp. Ltd (IRFC), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while presenting the Union Budget 2017 on Wednesday.
Keeping in mind the rise in train accidents in the current year, Jaitley said that passenger safety will be his key focus for the Indian Railways in the coming fiscal. To that effect, he announced a railway safety fund – Railway Sanraksha Kosh – with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
Jaitley said that the government will provide the seed capital while the Indian Railways will arrange the rest of the funds from its own “revenue avenues”.
“The government will lay down clear-cut guidelines for the timelines for implementation of various safety works to be funded from this kosh,” Jaitley said. “Unmanned level crossings on broad gauge lines will be eliminated by 2020.”
The announcement of the Railway Safety Fund came in light of increased train derailments reported this year. This year, incidents of train derailments hit a six-year high of 74 by January 23 compared to 65 recorded last year, prompting the railways to bring back a rail safety cess.
The funding is likely to be used for a range of purposes including works on tracks, improving bridges, replacing rolling stock and improving inspection system.
For the first time in 92 years, the government presented its financial plan for Indian Railways as part of the Union Budget. Jaitley said that the government will work on four major pillars for the railways:
1. Passenger safety
2. Capital expenditure and development work
3. Cleanliness reforms
4. Finance and accounting reforms
For 2017-2018, the finance minister pegged the total capital expenditure of railways at Rs 1.31 lakh crore, which includes Rs 55,000 crore provided by the government for in Budget 2017.
The government will also commission railway lines of Rs 3,500 kilometres in the upcoming financial year, in addition to launch of dedicated corridors for pilgrimage.
“At least 25 stations are to be awarded for station redevelopment and 500 stations will be made disabled friendly by providing lifts and elevators,” Jaitley said in his Budget 2017 speech.
The government also targets to fit bio-toilets in all coaches by the year 2019.
“Transformative measures have to be taken to make Indian Railways competitive,” Jaitley said. “Railways will implement end-to-end integrated transport solutions for selected commodities through partnerships with logistic players.”
For the transport sector as a whole, Rs 2.41 lakh crore were provided in the budget for the financial year 2017-2018.
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