Panel Wants Government To Fund Rlys Infrastructure Cost

The railway convention committee has made a strong plea for 100 per cent financing of infrastructure cost of the railways by the government to help it modernise and to increase efficiency.

The committee, in its second report on the Ninth plan perspective infrastructural requirement of Indian railways has taken a strong view against the railways funding its infrastructure development cost out of its own coffers and has recommended that this responsibility should be taken up by the government as it is doing in respect of road, port and airport development.

The committee has pointed out that in other countries also the capital cost for creating the infrastructure is the responsibility of the government while the railways invest on rolling stocks only.

 

The committee noted that in the Indian context the budgetary support which constituted 75 per cent of the total plan outlay in the fifth plan came down to 16 per cent in 1996-97 despite a strident demand for railway network expansion in tribal, backward and remote and hilly areas which are inadequately covered by the railways for shortage of funds.

In the eighth plan, it says, an outlay of Rs 2,940 crore was proposed for construction of new lines, but for want of adequate budgetary support from the government, the plan outlay for the new lines had to be restricted to Rs 900 crore.

In the ninth plan, the report says, the position is far more disconcerting because the fund requirement for completing the ongoing new line construction work covering as many as 3,610 kms is a huge Rs 4,380 crore which is required right at the beginning of the plan.

The report said railways is required to double its freight and passenger output to 10 per cent annually so that the economy does not suffer on account of transport bottlenecks when the economy grows at seven per cent in the ninth plan. It feels that to reach this 10 per cent growth in freight and passenger traffic, railways needs raise investment annually Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 13,000 crore on modernisation in the ninth plan.

This calls for good fund management by the railways and funds from the Planning Commission and the finance ministry, the committee has pointed out.