Budget 2018: Railways expect more funds for safety -Governance Now

Budget 2018: Railways expect more funds for safety

After a spate of accidents in 2017, largely due to poor safety measures, the railways want to introduce modern signaling system and eliminate unmanned crossings

Vishwas Dass | January 31, 2018 | Delhi

#budget #union budget #Finance Ministry #Indian Railways #rail budget #rail accident #rail safety

Piyush Goyal, railway minister

Ahead of the union budget 2018-19, Indian railways is hoping to get adequate funds to strengthen safety and introduce modern signaling system for its gigantic rail network of over 65,000 kms.

The government had merged the railway budget with the union budget in 2017 based on the recommendations of the NITI Aayog.

Though the 2017-18 budget had approved the railway safety fund known as Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) of a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore, the railways expects that it would get more funds to introduce modern signaling system. The railways would get Rs 20,000 crore every year for a period of five years under RRSK.

In the last budget, a gross budgetary support of Rs 55,000 crore was provided by the government to the railways which is likely to increase in the upcoming budget. However, railway officials at the Rail Bhavan on Tuesday remained tightlipped on the development.

Another important aspect of ensuring safety is elimination of unmanned level crossings (ULCs) and construction of rail under/over bridges. A huge number of accidents take place at the ULCs.

A report on safety and security in Indian Railways showed, 1,456 persons died at 610 accidents at ULCs in the past 11 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16.

The Indian railways is contemplating to eliminate 4,943 ULCs in the next three years. In 2017-18, the railways is supposed to remove 1,500 ULCs, while the same number of crossings would be removed in 2018-19. A total of 1,943 ULCs would be eliminated in 2019-2020.

The railways needs a staggering Rs 43,444 crore for elimination of ULCs, construction of road over bridge, road under bridges and low height subways to reduce fatal mishaps. For track works including maintenance, the ministry requires Rs 30,032 crore.

Electrification of broad gauge tracks is also the biggest priority of the railway minister Piyush Goyal who wants to reduce the dependence on the conventional fuel for a cleaner environment.

The railways has planned 100 percent electrification of 38,000 kms of tracks by 2022-23. According to a railway official, a total of 4,000 km of tracks would be electrified in 2018-19, 6,000 kms in 2019-20, 7,000 kms in 2020-21, 10,500 kms in 2021-22 and 10,500 kms in 2022-23.

Comments

Other News

Kartarpur Sahib: The corrdidor can show the way to peace

When the corridor to the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, in Kartarpur (Pakistan), was opened for the pilgrims from India on November 9, prime minister Narendra Modi recalled the fall of Berlin Wall, which took place on the same date 30 years ago. The Berlin Wall collapse not only reunited the two Ge

On A Personal Note with Anees Bazmee, film writer, director and producer

Starting out as a child artist, in a career spanning more than three and half decades Anees Bazmee has written/directed more than 60 films in Hindi, Tamil and Marathi in a variety of genres. After writing films like ‘Hum Farishtey Nahin’, ‘Swarg’, and ‘Aankhen’, he d

Rafale review petitions dismissed

The supreme court on Thursday dismissed the petitions seeking a review of its December 2018 verdict on the Rafale deal. The bench found no merit in review petitions that had sought an investigation into the high-profile defence deal. “We don’t feel necessary to order FIR or rovin

Power struggle, stalemate lead to president’s rule in Maharashtra

Maharashtra has been placed under the president’s rule after the leading contenders failed to make a head start in government formation amid tussle for power. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari informed the president Tuesday that despite all efforts he did not see any possibility of gover

From Jal Shakti to Jal Prabandhan

This piece is based on a previous article by the authors published in Geoforum [Elsevier] in May 2019: available online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0016718519300764?via%3Dihub

Shiv Sena set to form government in Maharashtra

The BJP’s oldest ally Shiv Sena is once again parting ways, putting their alliance behind and preparing to form government in Maharashtra with the support of the NCP and Congress. Nineteen days after the legislative assembly elections, despite a clear mandate for the BJP and Sena, Maha