Prabhu ends rail Budget journey with many firsts

Here is a fact check on key highlights of Suresh Prabhu's railway Budget from last year

With the merger of the railway Budget with the general Budget, Suresh Prabhu has become part of history as the last railway minister to present a Budget. 

Considered to be the most dynamic minister in the Narendra Modi-led government, Prabhu’s stint is unique because there were no announcements of a long list of new trains or new railway lines last year. In terms of revolutionising rail travel in India, Prabhu was successful in introducing high-speed trains and Wi-Fi services at stations and the year saw a revival in passenger traffic. Here is a fact check on key highlights of Prabhu's Budget. 

Economic health

The move to merge the Budget itself will save a gross amount of Rs 10,000 crore annually for the railways. In addition to this, the ministry has placed about Rs 40,000 crore of contracts with diesel and electric locomotive factories and has also secured Rs 1.5 lakh crore long-term funding from Life Insurance Corporation. The railways may also go in for $300 million masala bonds this year.  During his Budget last year, Prabhu had kept gross traffic receipts at Rs 1,84,820 crore, of which Rs 51,012 crore was supposed to come from passenger earnings and Rs 1, 17,933 crore from goods earnings. But till December, the passenger revenue of railways stood at Rs 31,493 crore. And railway officials accept that due to lower demand for coal and demonetisation’s effect on the cement sector, the railways had a revenue shortfall of Rs 7,000 crore in freight during the first nine months. Interestingly, passenger numbers has increased marginally after three financial years. 

New trains

Prabhu promised only four new trains in his Budget, including the Antyodaya Express, Humsafar Express, Tejas and UDAY. The three-tier AC train Humsafar is targeted at low-Budget commuters who want to graduate to air-conditioned travel by paying a bit more. It was launched in December and is likely to cover at least 10 routes this year. Tejas is likely to be launched soon, and will have 22 new features, including entertainment LCD screens for each passenger along with headphone sockets.The train will have service attendants, besides bringing the speed advantage of 130 kmph. On the other hand, the Antyodaya Express, a long-distance, fully unreserved, super-fast train service will target the common man and UDAY (Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-conditioned Yatri) overnight trains plying on the busiest routes to increase capacity by 40 per cent, are yet to be launched. 

Insurance scheme

A key highlight of last year's Budget was the announcement of a passenger insurance scheme. Initially, the railways launched an insurance scheme for passengers booking tickets online on an experimental basis from September 2. At a premium of 92 paise per passenger, the scheme provides insurance coverage of up to Rs 10 lakh. The three companies providing insurance are Shriram General Insurance, ICICI Lombard and Royal Sundaram General Insurance.

After demonetisation, the cover was provided free on all online tickets. The government is planning to extend this facility to over-the-counter tickets. 

Non-fare revenue

In January 2017, Prabhu unveiled a policy enabling the Indian Railways to earn revenue from advertising on trains, railway bridges and other assets, setting up ATMs on platforms and offering digital content to passengers, which is likely to earn it an additional revenue of at least Rs 15,000 crore. To look into this, a special directorate was set up by the minister early this financial year. Prabhu had announced commissioning of wi-fi services at 100 stations this year and 400 stations in two years. Railway subsidiary RailTel has tied up with Google to roll out ­branded wi-fi hotspots to connect at least 100 railway stations with a data network by the year-end and is also in talks with social media giant Facebook for providing Wi-Fi services in stations. A tender is also likely to be floated soon for Rail Radio, to provide entertainment on 1,000 mail and express trains, including the Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and Durontos.

Safety concerns

One of the major challenges that Prabhu faced this year was the increasing number of railway accidents. In last three months, rail mishaps claimed 190 lives, increasing the demand for more allocation of funds for safety and maintenance. Interestingly, the national carrier claims that about 45-odd incidents of suspected sabotage occurred in 2016, of which a few were referred to the National Investigative Agency and the Central Bureau of Investigation. The disruption of 7 million tonnes of freight traffic because of these incidents led to a loss of Rs 700 crore. On the other hand, the loss in passenger revenue was around Rs 100 crore. The railway ministry under Suresh Prabhu is seeking a higher Budget allocation and a dedicated Rs 1 lakh crore fund for safety.