RailwaysMinister Suresh Prabhu, who will present the Railway Budget on February 25, stressed on the need for “modernisation and integration of system” and also on “the requirement to generate funds apart from passenger fares.”
Speaking at the Foreign Correspondants Club, he said, “Suggestions and ideas from varied quarters have been gathered while preparing the Rail Budget for 2016-17. The last year’s Budget was the first Rail Budget of this government. Last year, we had clearly laid a roadmap as to what work was to be done in the ministry. We managed to raise revenues for the Railways apart from the allocated budget.”
Explaining the financial position of the Railways, Prabhu said they cannot just depend on passenger fare to sustain and steps are needed to generate revenue from outside as well. "We cannot just depend on freight and passenger earnings. We have to increase the non-tariff revenue also," he said, adding that there is a “requirement for restructuring.”
“Increasing the capacity of existing infrastructure has been our primary area of concern. Huge focus has been laid on the expansion of electrification. One of the key areas is that import and export are down, which is related to global economy. Dedicated freight corridor will be completely tendering in the next two months. About 25 million dollar will be invested by Japan in India and a huge sum will pumped into Railways,” he said.
Apart from increasing revenue from advertisements, the Ministry also plans to generate money by venturing into commercial enterprises such as real estate through station development. Citing examples of Tokyo and London stations, Prabhu said: “We are offering 400 stations for redevelopment across the country.”
Noting the decline in freight business, he said: “It is a global trend. Cargo movement has declined globally. The import and export have considerably gone down. So freight is also down. Loadings of steel, cement and coal were also affected because of the economy. Cargo movement is always influenced by external factors.”
He said loading of foodgrains has also been being affected because of change in policy. “So nobody can swim against the current. China's economy is also affected due to the slowdown," he said.
However, the Minister hoped that the last quarter of the fiscal would see an improvement.