Railway Budget 2007-08

Railway Budget 2007-08

Highlights

Passenger Trains

• No hike in passenger fares - fares have been cut across the board
• AC fares down – 6% in lean season and 3% in peak season
• Sleeper class fares cut by 4%
• 6 unreserved compartments in every train from now
• Women above 45 to have greater quota in AC and 2^nd class sleeper coaches; women to get priority lower berths
• Cushioned seats to replace wooden seats in unreserved 2^nd class
• Specially designed coaches for handicapped
• Sleeper coach berths to go up from 72 to 84
• Capacity of AC Chair Car to be increased from 67 to 102; AC 3 Tier from 64 to 81, AC 2 Tier from 46 to 48 and AC 1st from 18 to 22
• TTEs to do spot reservations with hand-held palmtops.
• 50% fare concession for UPSC, other official examinees
• Student concession only for 2^nd class
• 32 new passenger trains and 8 Garib Raths planned
• 800 new carriages in popular passenger trains
• Separate coaches for vendors and petty traders
• Railways to set up call centres, SMS alerts, dial 139 anywhere in India for passenger alerts/railway enquiry, 6,000 automatic ticket vending machines to be installed in major cities.
• Each zone to have SP grade officer looking into consumer complaints
• Customer complaints to be looked into in three months
• 23 train routes to be extended
• Superfast surcharge levied on 2^nd class cut by 20%
• New trains for cement transportation.
• Reduction in fares by Re 1 per passenger in non-suburban tickets

General highlights

• Outlay of Annual Plan for the year 2007-08 is proposed at Rs 31,000 crore Revised estimates for Passenger Rs.17,400 crore
• Revised estimates for other coaching 1,726 crore
• Revised estimates for Freight 42,299 crore
• Revised estimates for Gross Traffic Earnings 63,120 crore
• Gross Traffic Earnings are likely to go up by 16 per cent
• Total Working Expenditure is likely to be Rs. 49,615 crore
• Indian Railways expects Rs 20,000 crore profits in 2006-07 against Rs 14,700 crore the previous year.
• Interest surplus at Rs 10,227 crore
• RoCE at 32%
• Fund balance is Rs 16,000 crore.
• Passenger traffic up 14% in first nine months of the fiscal.
• Cement / steel traffic up 20-30%
• Operating margins up despite cut in
• Additional load of 60 million tonnes this year

Freight

• Freight rates unchanged
• Only Petrol, diesel freight rates down by 5%
• Freight earnings up 17% in nine months.
• By the year 2011-12, railway traffic from cement and steel industry to increase to 200 MT each.
• Will invest massively in container operations in the next five years
• Cement, Steel load factor up 20%
• Efforts to increase container traffic five-fold to 100 MT by 2011-12
• 15 private container licenses issued in past 2 years
• Expects 60 MT extra freight loading in 2007
• Freight on cement /steel up 5-7%
• Busy route surcharge on iron ore withdrawn
• Construction of the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors will start in the year 2007-08. These will be completed during the 11th Five Year Plan at a cost of about Rs. 30,000 crore

Railway infrastructure & other plans

• To run triple stack container trains with low height container on diesel routes and double stack container trains on electrified routes on pilot basis
• 20,000 km of high-density network to be laid
• Wagon production likely to rise by 10%
• Wagon manufacturers to make wagons on RDSO recommendations
• Special 25-tonne axle load trains to be introduced on pilot basis
• Massive investment in container operations over the next 5 years
• To launch new wagons of 15-25 metric tonnes
• Rs 5,000 crore in Mumbai Urban Transport Plan
• Rail locomotive production to increase
• Work on dedicated freight corridor to begin in 2007-08. The corridor will be completed after investing Rs 30,000 crore
• Entrepreneurs invited to enter into long term service level agreements (SLAs) with the Railways which will provide support services for laying new lines up to their facilities, enhancing capacity of existing lines, making available wagons designed to suit their specific requirements, formulation of pricing policy and in developing loading and unloading terminals
• Existing and new companies invited to enter into SLAs with Railways to run their MGRs (merry go rounds) for coal at lower costs
• Production of 25 T axle load wagons and 22.9 T axle load wagons of new design will commence in 2007-08. Similarly, 22.9 T and 25 T Axle load wagons suitable for steel and petroleum products will also be manufactured
• In 2007-08, 200 each diesel and electric locomotives and 11,000 wagons will be produced
• During the 11th Five Year Plan production of rolling stock will be doubled
• Capacity of existing rail coach and loco production units will be enhanced through expanstion of these units. High horse power, energy efficient locomotives with new technology will also be produced
• One new factory each for rail coaches, diesel locomotives, electric locomotives and wheels will also be established
• The locomotives to be manufactured in these units will be equipped with state of the art technology and will be capable of hauling longer, heavier high axle load trains
• The new Rail Coach Factory will produce high capacity, modern and comfortable coaches. Similarly production of 32 tonne axle load, higher pay load lower tare weight and track friendly wagons will start for the new Dedicated Freight Corridors
• FY08 target increased to 785 MT
• FY08 cash surplus seen at Rs 21580 crore
• 2007-08 to be observed as Railways Cleanliness Year
• To introduce smart rail travel cards on pilot basis
• To increase IT spending on railways
• E-tickets (e-seva) to be sold through petrol pumps, ATMs and banks soon
• Rail tracks to be electrified across the country
• Priority for suburban trains
• Mumbai suburban train services to be increased.
• 300 more stations to be turned into model stations
• Feasibility studies to introduce super fast trains connecting metros
• Explosive detection devices, CCTV and cameras on sensitive railway stations
• Meter gauge to be converted to broad gauge
• Chair to be set up at IIM-A to study the management of Railways
• Independent marketing agency to be appointed for better revenues / rationalization of tariffs
• Coupon ticketing system to be introduced in Kolkata and Chennai
• No privatization of Railways; PPP not a fashion nor is a necessity
• 500 Km of new railway lines envisaged