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Railways to woo private investment

NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, in her budget speech on Wednesday, announced the upgrading of 94 stations, conversion of 10 others into world class stations, and the construction of 93 more multi-functional complexes, multi-level parking, and six bottling plants to provide cheap drinking water.

The first among the new series of trains she announced will be the Sanskriti Express — Epar Bangla, Opar Bangla — in commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore.

The train will be run in consultation with the government of Bangladesh across the border. Six special trains for women have been named ‘Matribhoomi’ trains, three unreserved ones for the working classes have been christened ‘Karmabhoomi’ trains, and as a tribute to the men in uniform a ‘Janmabhoomi’ train will be run between Ahmedabad and Udhampur.

The pilgrimage series of trains, to be run on 16 routes, will be known as the ‘Bharat Tirth’ trains.

Ms. Banerjee also promised to recruit retired jawans into the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and create 12 companies of women RPF personnel named ‘Mahila Vahini.’

The Railways intends to man all 17,000 unmanned crossings within five years and introduce anti-collision devices, train protection warning systems, and automatic fire and smoke detection systems in 20 pairs of long-distance trains as a pilot project to bring down accidents.

Ms. Banerjee announced a master plan for the development of rail infrastructure in the north-east region and the establishment of a National High Speed Rail Authority for planning, standard setting, implementing and monitoring the execution of six corridors capable of operating trains at 250 to 350 km an hour.

The Minister also intends to revamp the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India for the speedy implementation of the programme.

New initiatives in the freight business include the introduction of a modified wagon investment scheme and special time-sensitive freight trains. The Railways is also considering a premium tatkal service for parcel and freight movement and the need for special wagons for iron ore, fly ash and automobiles.

To attract private investment, Ms. Banerjee announced the setting up of a special task force and the creation of a separate structure to work out a business model. Guidelines would be drawn up after consultations with the Prime Minister to clear all proposals for investment within 100 days.

The Minister also sought their cooperation in modernising and augmenting the capacity of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works and in setting up a diesel multiple unit at Sankrail, wagon repair shop at Badnera, rail axle factory at New Jalpaiguri, MLR workshop of 250 coaches at Adra, five state-of-the-art wagon factories, a refrigerated container factory at Budge Budge and the installation of a second unit at ICF, among others.

In regard to the performance in 2009-10, the Railways expects a sum of Rs.951 crore as surplus after having suffered a shortfall in passenger earnings and a marginal increase in freight earning estimates.

Traffic receipts at Rs.88,356 crore as against expectations of Rs.88,419 crore meant a shortfall of Rs.69 crore on this account.

Total earnings have been pegged at Rs.90,713 crore, of which Rs.5,538 crore will be paid as dividend to the Union government.

As for 2010-11, gross traffic receipts have been projected at Rs.94,765 crore and dividend payment of Rs.6,609 crore. The operating ratio will be brought down to 92.3 per cent. The annual plan outlay has been proposed at Rs.41,426 crore, a record.

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