| Railway Board Chairman JP Batra says the move will help lure passengers and reduce losses by Rs 1,000 crore. Rationalisation in freight will also help the railways to increase market share from 34 per cent to around 50 per cent over the next few years. Excerpts:
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| You have reduced fares for the upper-class and freight for petrol and diesel. What are the revenue implications of this for the railways?
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| The implications are not significant except in the passenger segment where it will be around Rs 300-400 crore. But this will be neutralised by a reduction in losses on account of lower passenger volume. We expect to reduce passenger losses by Rs 1,000 crore in the next fiscal.
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| Similarly, earnings from additional passenger volumes on account of speeding up of trains will be around Rs 200 crore per annum. We hope to earn another Rs 250 crore from passenger volumes by providing upgrade facilities to passengers of all mail and express trains.
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| What is your estimate of additional resource mobilisation?
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| We expect to mop up around Rs 4,000 crore next fiscal of which Rs 3,000 crore will be from freight while around Rs 1,000 crore will be from passenger traffic.
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| While 55 new trains have been introduced, most of the new lines are in Bihar. What do you have to say on the Bihar bias?
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| We have made an analysis of trains from different regions. In the northern region, 34 trains have been introduced, while in the southern region, 53 trains have been introduced. In the western region, 34 trains have been introduced and in central India, 28. Therefore, by and large all the areas have been taken care of. It is not correct to say that Bihar has been given special treatment.
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| You have rationalised freight. Are there some items on which freight has increased? What market share are you targeting from rationalisation?
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| There has been a slight increase in freight in case of paper, sponge iron and oil cakes. But there is no change for steel and cement. At present, our market share in freight is around 34 per cent.
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| We have not done a detailed analysis but in the next few years, with our dedicated freight corridor, our market share can increase to around 50 per cent.
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| By when will the dedicated freight corridor be put in place?
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| We will be finalising a business plan and undertaking a detailed engineering survey, which should be available by October-November.
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| We will also have to set up a special purpose vehicle for the project. |
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