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With a focus on the safety and security of passengers, Railways Minister D V Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday proposed an annual Plan outlay of Rs 65,445 crore for the Railways in 2014-15, the highest. The outlay is 1.77 per cent more than proposed by the United Progressive Alliance government in the interim railway budget for 2014-15 and about 10 per cent more than actual allocation in 2013-14.
A total of 23 per cent of the increased Plan outlay will be financed through internal accruals, projected at an all-time high of Rs 15,350 crore, against Rs 13,500 crore projected in the interim budget and the 2013-14 revised estimate of Rs 11,710 crore. This indicates the government could continue with fare and freight rationalisation, the beginning of which was seen last month, when the government had raised passenger fares 14 per cent.
In a reflection of its stretched financial position, the Modi government has pegged the 2014-15 gross budgetary support at Rs 30,100 crore, marginally less than the Rs 30,223 crore pegged in the interim budget.
"Safety of passengers is of paramount importance for Indian Railways. It is estimated about Rs 40,000 crore will have to be invested in track renewal, elimination of unmanned level-crossings and construction of road under-bridges and road over-bridges," Gowda said, while delivering his maiden railway budget speech. He added the Railways had decided to embark on an ambitious path to safety and security of passengers. This included speedy construction of foot over-bridges and road under-bridges, elimination of 11,563 unmanned railway crossings, use of modern vehicle-borne ultrasonic flaw detection systems to detect rail and weld fractures in tracks and automatic closing of doors before trains began their journeys (both in main-line and sub-urban coaches), to be taken up on a pilot basis. Despite the increased budgetary support in 2014-15, the railways will still fall short of the 12th five-year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) target of generating about Rs 194,221 crore from budgetary support. The low allocation in the first three years of the Plan effectively means to meet the target, the government will have to provide about Rs 58,000 crore in the last two years of the Plan, through budgetary support.
The estimated market borrowing was scaled down to Rs 11,790 crore from Rs 13,500 crore in the interim railway budget and Rs 11,710 crore in the revised estimate for the 2013-14.
Indian Railways hopes to mobilise only Rs 6,005 crore through the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, only Rs 5 crore more than projected by the interim Railway Budget and significantly more than the Rs 3,546 crore mopped up in 2013-14. This puts in doubt the mobilisation target through the PPP route in the 12th Plan. While the Railways is expected to generate about Rs 100,000 crore through the PPP mode during the 12th Plan, only Rs 16,551 crore is expected to be mobilised in the first three years of the Plan. For the Plan period, internal revenue generation is projected at Rs 225,000 crore. The budget showed the Railways' share of the Road Safety Fund in 2014-15 is projected at Rs 2,200 crore, against Rs 777 crore projected in the interim budget of 2014-15 and Rs 200 crore more than in 2013-14.
