Railway budget gives clear thrust to augment investment: CII

Industry body has welcomed the announcements on the development of three new freight corridors as well as the logistics parks and warehousing in PPP mode

Welcoming the rail budget, Sumit Mazumder, president, CII, said, “The railway budget delineates a bold vision and foresight with a strong focus on investment, job creation, safety and security which would help to move our growth closer to our latent potential. The Budget has deftly attempted a harmonious blend of matching commercial objectives with meeting the aspirations of the common man and aimed at enriching consumer experience. This budget has created enormous opportunities and industry would look forward to working closely with the Rail Ministry in ensuring success of a number of the initiatives announced.”
 
In line with CII recommendations, the rail budget has provided a strong focus on augmenting investment, particularly in infrastructure. The Minister’s focus on the investment plan that was laid out last year and initiatives on capacity enhancement and time bound implementation of key projects are indeed positive. In particular, CII has welcomed the announcements on the development of three new freight corridors as well as the logistics parks and warehousing in PPP mode.

 
Reliance on technology through introduction of train sets, power saving initiatives, enhancement of passenger amenities etc will go a long way in improving the customer experience from Indian railways.
 

“The Minister has had to walk a tight rope to balance the Budget and finance the investment plans. New sources of revenue through station redevelopment and monetisation of soft assets are welcome. Measures such as expanding of freight basket, building terminal capacity, among others would help augment revenues. Further, the plan envisaged to regain freight share for railways augurs well,” said CII in the press release. 
 
The review of tariff policy to evolve a competitive rate structure vis-a-vis other modes of transport should be used in this direction. At the same time, steps such as zero based costing, electricity at cheaper rates, delineation of responsibility to zonal railway etc would help reduce costs, according to CII.

 
Some of the other commendable initiatives include restructuring of Railway Board, setting up of cross-functional directorates within the railway board, focus on R&D through setting up of SRESTHA, elimination of all unmanned crossings by 2020, increasing the outlay of rail electrification by 50 percent and target to electrify 2000 kms, augmenting the speed of passenger and freight movement, among others, CII said in the release.