THE 2011 railway budget, presented to the Indian parliament today by the railway minister, Mrs Mamata Banerjee, acknowledges that Indian Railways (IR) is going through a difficult phase. IR lost Rs 35 billion ($US 774 million) in 2010-11 following a 97% increase in costs mainly due to implementing the findings of the Sixth Pay Commission. IR now spends 42% of revenue on pay and a further 17% on pensions. Fuel is the third largest item of expenditure accounting for 16% of income.
THE 2011 railway budget, presented to the Indian parliament today by the railway minister, Mrs Mamata Banerjee, acknowledges that Indian Railways (IR) is going through a difficult phase. IR lost Rs 35 billion ($US 774 million) in 2010-11 following a 97% increase in costs mainly due to implementing the findings of the Sixth Pay Commission. IR now spends 42% of revenue on pay and a further 17% on pensions. Fuel is the third largest item of expenditure accounting for 16% of income.
Nevertheless, IR projects a 10% increase in earnings from freight traffic, which accounts for 65% of turnover, and a 16.57% rise in passenger earnings despite no planned increase in fares.
IR plans to invest a record Rs 576.3 billion in 2011-12. This includes adding 180km of new lines to the network, continuing construction of the two dedicated freight corridors, extending its anti-collision device - which has been successfully introduced on North West Frontier Railway - to three more zonal railways, and setting up more factories to manufacture railway equipment. Banerjee said that 85 proposals for public-private partnership projects have been received and a central system is to be set up to take then forward.
