VISIONIAS

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CURRENT AFFAIRS
RAILWAY BUDGET
2016-2017

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Theme of the Budget

Overcoming challenges - Reorganize, Restructure Rejuvenate Indian Railways:
'Chalo, Milkar Kuch Naya Karen'
Three pillars of the strategy i.e. Nav Arjan - New revenues, Nav Manak - New
norms, Nav Sanrachna - New Structures
Key Highlights:
1. Railways to get Rs 40,000 crore budgetary support from the government.
2. There will be no hike in passenger fares this year.
3. All the unmanned level crossings will be eliminated by 2020.
4. 17,000 bio-toilets and additional toilets in 475 stations to be installed in order to
promote Swachh Bharat Mission.
5. Quota for senior citizens for lower berths in each coach to be increased by 50%
thereby adding nearly 120 lower berths per train for then.
6. 33% reservation to women in reserved quota in Railways will be introduced.
7. Wi-Fi to be installed in 100 stations this year and 400 stations next year, in
partnership with Google.
8. All the major stations to be brought under CCTV surveillance.
9. IRCTC to manage catering service. Local cuisine of choice will be available for
passengers. Reservation for backward classes SC and ST and women in catering.
10. Cleaning of toilets by requests through SMS. Disabled enabled toilet in 11 ClassA stations this year.
11. Capacity of e-ticketing system to be enhanced from 2,000 tickets/min to
7,200/min.
12. Deen Dayal coaches to be added for long distance trains for unreserved
passengers. These coaches will provide potable water and higher number of mobile
charging points.
13. GPS-based digital display in coaches for showing upcoming stations.
14. Ticket cancellation facility to be provided through helpline number 139.
15. Bar-coded tickets to be available on pilot basis which will tackle menace of
ticketless travel.
16. Menu for their children, baby food, baby boards to be made available for ease
travelling of mothers.
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17. 1,780 automatic ticket vending machines to be added to railway stations.

18. Braille enabled train wagons to be implemented for specially abled people.
19. 1,600 km of electrification this year and 2,000 km proposed for the next year.
20. India's first railway auto hub in Chennai to be launched soon.
21. More dedicated freight corridors to accommodate the increased demand in
freight transport.
22. Highend technology for safety will be implemented.
23. Three direct services - fully air-conditioned Humsafer to travel at 130-km per
hour.
24. E-booking of tickets on concessional passes for journalists introduced.
25. Ajmer, Amritsar, Gaya, Mathura, Nanded, Nashik, Puri, Tirupati, Varanasi,
Nagapattinam and other pilgrim stations to be beautified.
26. Porters not to be called 'coolies' but be called 'sahayaks' now; will be trained in
soft skills.
27. Aastha Circuit Trains to connect important Pilgrim Centers.
28. Propose to invite FM radio stations to provide train borne entertainment via PA
systems
Initiative to garner greater share of freight movement

Expanding the freight basket of Indian Railway - to start time-tabled

freight container, parcel and special commodity trains on a pilot basis,
container sector would be opened to all traffic barring coal, specified mineral
ores and part-loads during the non-peak season. All existing terminals/sheds
would be granted access to container traffic, where considered feasible.
Rationalising the tariff structure undertake review of tariff policy to
evolve a competitive rate structure vis a vis other modes, permit multi-point
loading/unloading and apply differentiated tariffs to increase utilization of
alternate routes, explore possibility of signing long term tariff contracts with
our key freight customers using pre-determined price escalation principles.
Building terminal capacity - proposed to develop Rail side logistics parks
and warehousing in PPP mode, 10 goods sheds will be developed by
TRANSLOC, the Transport Logistics Company of India, in 2016-17. To soon
inaugurate Indias first rail auto hub in Chennai. Encourage development of
cold storage facilities on vacant land near freight terminals. Local farmers and
fisherman would be given preferential usage of the facility. A policy in this
regard would be issued in the next 3 months.

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Nurturing customers - will appoint Key Customer Managers to liaison with

our major freight stakeholders; each Zonal Railway will develop customer
commitment charter indicating service level commitments of IR, will explore
the feasibility of opening up leasing of general purpose wagons

Seven Mission mode activities to transform Railway

The Minister of Railways while presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in the
Parliament today has proposed to transform Indian Railways through seven
Mission activities Avataran. These missions are:

1. Mission 25 Tonne It aims to increase revenue by augmenting carrying

capacity. To achieve this 10-20% freight loading will be done through 25tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight
traffic on high axle load wagons by FY19-20.
2. Mission Zero Accident: It comprises of two sub missions
a. Elimination of unmanned level crossings: The goal is eliminate all
unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge in the next 3-4 years through
innovative financing mechanisms. It will reduce deaths due to accidents and
improve throughput of the network

b. TCAS (Train Collision Avoidance System): An indigenous technology has been

developed to equip 100% of the High Density Network with TCAS in the next 3
years. This will prevent head on collisions and improve throughput by increasing
average sectional speeds.
3. Mission PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency): This mission
aims to improve our procurement and consumption practices to improve the quality
of goods and services. It will introduce a culture of optimum usage by adopting
practices such as Vendor Managed Inventory, direct procurement of HSD, new
procedures for identification and disposal of scrap. Comprehensive review of
procurement and consumption of HSD will lead to saving more than Rs 1,500 crore
in 2016-17.
4. Mission Raftaar: It targets doubling of average speeds of freights trains and
increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in the
next 5 years. Loco hauled passenger trains will be replaced by DEMU/MEMU over the
next five years. It will complement Mission 25 Tonne to increase throughput of the
railway system.
5. Mission Hundred: This mission will commission at least a hundred sidings in the
next 2 years. The current siding/ PFT policy would be revised to elicit greater private
participation. An online portal will be operated for accepting and processing all new
applications, alongwith decentralization of powers.
6. Mission beyond book-keeping: It will establish an accounting system where
outcomes can be tracked to inputs. This will transform IR as right accounting would
determine right costing and hence right pricing and right outcomes.
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7. Mission Capacity Utilisation: It proposes to prepare a blueprint for making full

use of the huge new capacity that will be created through two Dedicated Freight
Corridors between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata scheduled to be commissioned
by 2019.
Helping the old and disabled:

Expansion of Sarathi Seva: Sarathi Seva, which was introduced in Konkan

Railway to help the old and disabled passengers requiring assistance at
stations will be expanded at many more stations.
in pursuance of the objectives of Accessible India Campaign Indian Railway will
ensure that all stations under redevelopment are made disabled friendly.

Cleanliness Initiative:

Clean my Coach service on Pan India basis is introduced

Introduction of 30,000 Bio-Toilets in Trains

Initiative to Augment revenue from non-fare sources

Current revenue through non-fare sources is less than 5% and to increased it to
world average of 10% following initiatives will be taken:
1. Station redevelopment: A major programme of station redevelopment has been
initiated to monetize land and buildings through commercial exploitation of vacant
land and space rights over station buildings.
2. Monetizing land along tracks: Railways will lease out the land available adjacent
to tracks to promote horticulture and tree plantation. This will generate employment
to underprivileged sections, augment food security and also prevent encroachment.
Possibility of using these tracks for generating solar energy will also be exploited.
3. Monetizing soft assets: Railways to monetize the data collected on passenger
preferences, ticketing, commodity, train running on various services and operations.
IRCTC also offers opportunities of taking of e-commerce activities on large number
of hits that it receives.
4. Advertising: Railways to use its vast physical infrastructure for commercial
exploitation through advertisement. Special focus will be given to exploit extra
potential of stations, trains and land adjacent to tracks.
5. Overhaul of Parcel business: Railways to liberalize its current parcel policies to
increase the non-fare revenue. It will expand its service offerings especially to
growing sectors such as e-commerce.
6. Revenues from manufacturing activity: Railways to put focus to increase
productivity and better manufacturing practices to become a meaningful player in
the domestic and international markets. It is aimed to generate annualized revenues
of about Rs.4,000 crore by 2020.
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