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Rly. budget may focus on safety aspects
By Vinay Kumar
In the 2002-03 fiscal, the annual plan of the Railways was put at Rs. 4,900 crores, a reduction of Rs. 600 crores in the demand. This time around, it can witness only a "marginal hike". The budget exercise in the Rail Bhavan has been held up because of the delay in fixing the annual plan, the sources added.
Though the Railways is not exactly faced with bleak resources, nearly a dozen major accidents on the tracks have ripped apart its claims of enforcing better safety norms and discipline among its vast workforce. The focus in the coming Railway budget, well-placed sources said, could well be on completing safety related projects, including track renewals and replacement of aged assets such as distressed bridges.
The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, may even present a "white paper" on the safety aspects along with the budget, which is scheduled to be presented in Parliament on February 26. Since September last, when the Howrah-Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed near Gaya in Bihar, killing 130 passengers, there have been at least half-a-dozen accidents in which 50 to 60 people lost their lives and the Railways suffered losses worth several crores of rupees.
While the Rajdhani Express accident was blamed on sabotage, the recent one in South-Central Railway in Andhra Pradesh was reportedly caused due to the failure of the railway staff. With a special safety fund of Rs. 17,000 crores at its disposal, the dismal safety record of the Railways has come in for criticism.
Another crucial area is the emergence of two new Railway Zones, headquartered at Jaipur and Hajipur, which are stated to have pushed up the freight loading. Another five new zones are scheduled to become operational from April 1, 2003, taking the total number of zones in the Railways to 16.
The only silver lining has been the freight traffic as the loading in the current fiscal is likely to cross the target of 510 million tonnes. Though the freight traffic is bread and butter of the Railways, the element of internal cross-subsidy has always had an adverse impact on its finances. During 2000-01, the cross-subsidy in suburban and non-suburban passengers was about Rs. 3,500 crores. Not much change can be expected on this count, but there may be some adjustments in the freight rates, making it attractive vis-a-vis the fast emerging road sector which is giving a keen competition to the Railways.
The budget may see the Railways tapping "non-traditional" freight traffic. High-speed refrigerated parcel vans to move perishables such as fruits and vegetables across the country may be announced as well as direct links to vital ports are also likely to be provided.
While some quarters are reportedly in favour of working out a peak season and off-season first AC class passenger fares to ensure better occupancy, there has been some exercise in the Rail Bhavan towards evolving such a system. It remains to be seen if it finds favour with the Railway Minister. Some of the loss-making Shatabdi Express AC trains such as the Delhi-Bhatinda Express may face the axe but the newly-introduced "Jan Shatabdi Express" trains are likely to stay on the tracks and efforts would be to make them more popular.
Another area of concern is the slow-progress of Railtel, which had aimed at leasing its optical fibre network along the railway tracks. Sources attributed the sluggish pace to the communications sector.
The Railways has also seen a near 90 per cent rise in wages and pensionary liabilities. Pension has increased from Rs. 2,509 crores in 1996-97 to Rs. 5,800 crores in 2001-02, representing an increase of 131 per cent. By 2006, the pension bill of the Railways is likely to be more than the wage bill. This area is likely to attract the attention of the Minister to go for some cost-cutting to ensure that staff strength reduction was at two per cent every year. In another 7 to 8 years, the staff strength is likely to be stabilised from the current 15 lakh employees to about 12 lakh.
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