The Railway Budget is expected to focus on massive capacity creation in the rail sector with an increased outlay of about Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
A significant amount will be earmarked for safety upgradation, electrification, doubling and modernisation of yards to clear traffic bottlenecks, sources in the railways said.
However, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will have to depend mostly on the External Budgetary Resources (EBR) for execution of the capacity augmentation projects and he will give details of his resource mobilisation plan in the Rail Budget 2016-17.
Since Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) from the Finance Ministry is unlikely to meet the railways’ expectation, funding of projects will be mostly from EBR.
Railways will execute only finacially viable projects. Those projects which are financially not viable but economically and socially desirable will be undertaken through joint ventures with state governments.Sources
Prabhu has written to the chief ministers of 18 states for taking up rail projects through joint ventures route. Six states, including Maharashtra, Odisha, Kerala, Andhra, Chhatisgarh, have signed MoUs with the railways for forming joint ventures.
While annoucement of new trains is unlikely for the second consecutive year, a scheme for premium high-speed parcel trains is slated to be unveiled in the budget.
Gradual replacement of bogies of Shatabdi express with those to be used in semi-high speed trains, a new colour scheme, state-of-the-art furnishing of coaches and Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tagging of linens are some of the proposals likely to feature in the Rail Budget 2016-17.
Besides, the scheme of manufacturing ‘Anubhuti’ class coaches for premier services announced in the Rail Budget 2013-14 but in limbo is likely to be revived, according to railway sources.
Facing a decrease in earnings, the railways will press into service many special trains on higher fares, which is an indirect way of raising fares.
The railways have earned Rs 136,079.26 crore as against the target of Rs 141,416.05 crore, a decline of 3.77 percent. The fare of new AC suburban trains in Mumbai will be higher than regular local train.
Prabhu will give details about the concerted efforts being undertaken by the railways in his second budget speech in Parliament on 25 February.
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