Railway Budget: New trains to privatisation, what will Suresh Prabhu do?

Railway Budget will be keenly watched as this would be first time it has been merged with Union Budget. 

Suresh Prabhu, in his Railway Budget of last year, had spoken about bringing in three 'R' – Reorganise, Restructure, Rejuvenate in Indian Railways. 

His strategy was based on three pillars i.e. Nav Arjan (new revenues), Nav Manak (New norms) and Nav Sanrachna (new structures).

Has Railway Budget met its set target of 2016-17?

Indian Railways garnered just Rs 1.9 lakh crore during April – December 2016, period, from its core transportation business, which was down by 11.25% compared to the budget estimate of Rs 1.34 lakh crore.

In the same period, expenditures on projects like laying new tracks, doubling and electrification of the network across country witnessed a significant jump of 28.1% at Rs 68,059 crore compared to Rs 53,118 crore a year same period.

Overall in the period, Railways have managed to achieve 60% from the set target of Rs 1.21 lakh crore capex in last budget.

Because of seventh pay commission award, the Railways are facing an additional burden of Rs 32,000 crore.

Meanwhile, Railways' earnings for April – December period, stood over Rs 1.33 lakh crore, which was lower by Rs 3000 crore from last year same period. Prabhu has targeted revenue generation of nearly Rs 1.85 lakh crore in last fiscal.

Other key initiatives taken by Prabhu like Antyodaya Express, Deen Dayalu coaches, Travel Insurance to passengers IRCTC , Janani sewa, Humsafar trains have been met. 

To promote digitalisation, Prabhu has brought in services like mobile app, clean my coach, GPS based digital displays have also been successfully commenced in last budget. 

 As on 27 December 2016, 98 Railway Stations are provided with High Speed Wi-Fi service. Railway Ministry’s Twitter handle has reached 2 million followers.

Things that Prabhu missed out on were - reorganising the Railway Board, SMART (Specially Modified Aesthetic Refreshing Travel) Coaches,  UDAY Shortened form of Utkrisht Double-Decker Air-condition, Tejas Train and Railway Planning & Investment Organisation 

During last budget, Prabhu also said that fourteen PSUs owned by Indian Railways will be consolidated under on holding to facilitate divestment. This has also not commenced yet. 

What can be expected this budget? 

CRISIL Research expects the upcoming Union Budget to earmark Rs 1.3 lakh crore -1.4 lakh crore spending for next fiscal.

Prasad Koparkar, Senior Director, CRISIL Research, said “We see gross budgetary support going mainly into network decongestion and expansion. Secured debt of Rs 1.5 lakh crore from the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), and Rs 52300 crore loan from the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency have already been tied up. These will lead to higher allocation for, and faster execution of, strategic and remunerative projects.”  

"This budget will bring in major safety changes for Railways, like putting in CCTV camerá's in train. Also Railway line called Vistar which connects Kashmir and North east can be announced," a railway official said. 

He added, "WiFi services and E-catering will be major push this budget."

Crisil said, "Investments in safety would treble to Rs 900 billion, but will fall short of the target of Rs 1.27 trillion. Bulk of it will be to build rail under- and over-bridges, with the rest for track renewal, signalling and telecom, etc."