by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate finance, Corporate Governance
By Arun Kumar Das,
New Delhi : With the aim of providing better amenities, Railways will make a budget provision of Rs 3,400 crore for installing about 3,000 escalators and 1,000 lifts at all major urban and suburban stations across the country.
This will facilitate smooth movement of passengers, including old and physically-challenged people.
While 372 escalators are meant to cover all stations including Kandivali, Matunga, Bandra, Churchgate, Dadar, Elphinstone Road, Mahalakshmi and Jogeshwari in Mumbai, 2,589 escalators will be installed at stations on the rail network in the country.
According to a railway ministry official who did not want to be named, Large-scale installation of escalators and lifts would lead to an economy of scale, with reduction in cost. At present, an escalator costs around Rs 1 crore and a lift about Rs 40 lakh.
Railways recently revised the criteria for making urban and suburban stations eligible for installation of escalators from earnings-basis to footfalls.
Now all those stations which have 25,000 footfalls or more a year are selected for such installations. Earlier, those stations that had annual revenue ranging between Rs 8 crore and Rs 60 crore were eligible for the facility.
This time the focus of the Rail Budget is on safety and passenger amenities so it was decided to extend the facility to all major urban and suburban stations, the official said. The proposal of earmarking the provision for the escalators in Budget for 2018-19 was being finalised, he said.
The Rail Budget, merged with the main Budget, will be unveiled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on February 1.
(Arun Kumar Das is a senior Delhi-based freelance journalist. He can be contacted at akdas2005@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi : (IANS) Leaving fares unchanged while railway finances are under strain, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday the Indian Railways would increase its revenue through non-fare sources.
Railway revenue through non-fare sources would be increased to the world average of 10 percent — from less than five percent that it currently is — over the next five years, said Prabhu, presenting the Rail Budget 2016-17 to parliament.
Some of the non-fare sources of income he outlined are station redevelopment programme to monetise land and buildings through commercial exploitation of vacant land, monetising land along tracks and soft assets like data collected on passenger preferences, ticketing and commodity, etc.
The Railways also plan to use its vast physical infrastructure for commercial exploitation through advertisement as well as liberalise its existing parcel policies to increase its non-fare revenues, the minister said.
The Indian Railways would also focus on increasing its productivity and better manufacturing practices, he added.
“It is aimed to generate annualised revenues of about Rs.4,000 crore by 2020,” Prabhu said.
Prabhu gives boost to unreserved travel
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has introduced a few new trains in his budget, giving a boost to unreserved travel, which is aimed at people with lower income.
“We propose to introduce the Antyodaya Express, a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, for the common man to be operated on dense routes,” the minister said while presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 to parliament.
“Humsafar would be fully airconditioned third AC service with an optional service for meals. Tejas, on the other hand, will showcase the future of train travel in India. Operating at speeds of 130 kmph and above, it will offer onboard services such as entertainment, local cuisine and Wi-Fi through one service provider for ensuring accountability and improved customer satisfaction,” he said.
“We will also introduce overnight double-decker, Utkrisht DoubleDecker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express on the busiest routes, which has the potential to increase carrying capacity by almost 40 percent,” Prabhu added.
He also introduced a new train between Varanasi and Delhi, ‘Mahamana Express’ with modern refurbished coaches.
“We will also add two to four Deen Dayalu coaches in some long distance trains for unreserved travel to enhance our carrying capacity for the masses. These coaches will also have facility for potable drinking water and a higher number of mobile charging points.”
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News
New Delhi (IANS) Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, who on Thursday presented his second consecutive railway budget, began his speech at rapid speed – like a speeding train – and kept the pace till the end, with many people struggling to keep track of the points he was making.
Prabhu’s speech began in pin drop silence in the Lok Sabha but ended on a noisy note after opposition benches lost their patience in the absence of anything concrete for their constituents.
But there were disturbances only on two occasions when he spoke.
The first was when he took the name of Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while announcing the provision of passenger amenities and beautification of stations at pilgrimage centres including Ajmer, Amritsar, Dwarka, Gaya and Puri.
The second time was shortly before the end of his speech when opposition members found no mention of new trains.
But Prabhu got support from the treasury benches whenever he mentioned the achievements of the Modi government and announced new projects.
Modi, seated with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, was among the first to greet Prabhu after his budget speech.
He was followed by Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi left the house after making disappointed gestures.
Jaitley came five minutes after Prabhu began speaking.
In his speech, Prabhu recalled former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and quoted Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Gautam Buddha too.
He mentioned Vajpayee twice while mentioning the challenging times the Indian economy was facing and the looming impact of the Seventh Pay Commission and increased productivity bonus payouts.
“These are challenging times, may be one of the toughest. At this moment, I am reminded of Vajpayee’s lines,” he said, reciting one of his poems “vipdaaye aati hai aye, hum na rukenge, hum na rukenge, aaghato ki kya chinta, hum na jhukenge, hum na jhukenge”.
Prabhu quoted Harivansh Rai Bachhan when he mentioned new structures needed for Indian railways. “Nav umang, nav tarang jeevan ka nav prasang, naval chah, naval rah jeevan ka nav pravah,” he recited.
At the end of his budget speech, Prabhu quoted Gautam Buddha to say that whenever one contemplates a journey, there are two mistakes one can make — not starting and not going all the way.
“We have already started the journey and I intend to go all the way and we will not rest till we take Indian Railways to a destination called success,” he said
