LARRDIS 1 March 2021 LARRDIS (Lok Sabha Secretariat) New Delhi BACKGROUND NOTE on “Indian Railways” (For the use of Members of Parliament) March 2021 ____________________________________________________________________________ The brief note is intended to serve only as a background aid to the Members of Parliament. It is for restricted circulation and not for publication in any form. [Prepared by the Infrastructure and Energy Desk, Reference Division. Officers associated with the preparation – Shalima Sharma, Joint Director, Shri Pradosh Panda, Director and supervised by Smt. Kalpana Sharma, Additional Secretary. Feedback is welcome and may be sent to refdiv- [email protected]] LARRDIS 2 March 2021 INTRODUCTION Indian Railways has a crucial role in the economic growth and development of our country. Be it carrying agriculture produce to distant places, aiding growth of industries and connecting major ports, railways have significantly helped in bridging the distance between the different places and regions of our country. As a relatively cheap mode of transport, it has been a preferred mode of travel and one of the instruments in national integration. Railways have also a played vital role in mitigating the suffering of people in natural calamities, drought, floods, famines, earthquake etc. Railways are specially suited to carry bulky materials like coal, petroleum and oars etc. Over the years the railway engines have developed from steam to diesel and now majorly to electric. This has added to make the train services super fast which has in a way contributed to quick movement of passengers and materials. With over 67,580 route kms, Indian Railways is the third-largest network in the world. During the year 2019-20, Indian Railways carried 1.2 billion tonnes of freight and 8.1 billion passengers – making it the world’s largest passenger carrier and fourth-largest freight carrier. It has adopted technological changes including through development of specific indigenous systems in signalling to avert train collision and to enable real time management of trains, in keeping with the Atamnirbhar Bharat Mission and by maintaining cleanliness standards under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. CHALLENGES Measures have been taken from time to time to improve the financial position of the railways. In losses to railways operating ratio is very often cited factor. This factor stretches across almost all the zones of Railways. In the wake of the Covid 19 operation of all passenger trains stopped due to lock down. The operating losses to the Railways across all zones amounts to decline by Rs.36,9903.82 crores in comparison to last year. It may however be noted that to ensure that the supply of essential commodities throughout the country is not disrupted. Indian Railways introduced parcel special train services during covid times. Shramik specials were organized in a mission mode to move migrant workers, pilgrims and students stranded in various States during the lockdown. Starting from 1 May to 31 August 2020, 4621 Shramik Specials have been operated as per demands of State Government. Land acquisition has been one of the main causes for delay in projects, added to which there has been the general slow down in all constructions and field work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully LARRDIS 3 March 2021 with fresh availability of funds and a easing off of the contagion, stalled projects will be completed as scheduled, making Indian Railways "future ready" to run the additional private trains safely and punctually. During the lock-down on account of COVID-19 pandemic, the operations of all passenger carrying trains was stopped, which shut-down the movement of essential commodities that had been moving by parcel services. To ensure that the supply of essential commodities throughout the country is not disrupted, Indian Railways introduced parcel special train services,. The first time-tabled parcel special train was run by the Indian Railways on 31 March 2020. The time-tabled parcel special train services were continued even when passenger carrying train services got restored. Till 25 December 2020, the Indian Railways have operated 7,267 parcel special trains, out of which 7,014 had been time-tabled services. Approximately 6.6 lakh tonnes of consignments were transported through these services. Shramik specials were organized in a mission mode to move migrant workers, pilgrims and students stranded in various States during the lockdown. Starting from 01.05.2020 upto 31st August 2020, 4621 Shramik Specials have been operated as per demands of State Government. Railway Safety- The Indian Railways accord the highest priority to railways safety and have been taking various measures on a continuous basis to prevent accidents and to enhance safety. As a result, the number of train accidents has come down from 104 in 2016-17 to 55 in 2019-20 despite a substantial increase in the traffic volume carried by the Indian Railways during the same period. Rail Accidents FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 Collisions 5 3 0 5 1 Derailments 78 54 46 40 7 Manned Level 0 3 3 1 1 Crossing Unmanned Level 20 10 3 0 0 Crossing Fire 1 3 6 8 1 Miscellaneous 0 0 1 1 0 Total 104 73 59 55 10 LARRDIS 4 March 2021 BUDGETARY SUPPORT The Union Budget 2021-22 was presented in the Parliament on 01 February 2021, which was the first Digital budget in the backdrop of unprecedented Covid-19 crisis. It is a known fact that infrastructure development pertaining to railways in our country has been a regular and a continuous move since independence. Keeping in view the need of creation of new lines, expansion of traffic facilities and doubling of railways lines etc in the Union Budget 2021-22, Railways has highest ever total plan capex of Rs.2,15,058 crore. This works out to 53% higher than the budget estimates of 2020-21(upto Dec.2020). Budget Estimates 2020-21 and 2021-22 Heads BUDGET BUDGET ESTIMATES ESTIMATES 2021- 2020-21 22 Gross Budgetary Support 70250 107300 Internal Resources 7500 7500 Extra Budgetary Resources 83292 100258 Total Capex 161042 215058 Freight and Freight Revenue Freight Freight Revenue Year (in Million Tonnes) (in Crores) 2017-18 1159.55 Rs. 1,17,055.40 2018-19 1221.48 Rs. 1,27,432.72 2019-20 1208.41 Rs. 1,13,487.89 INITIATIVES The initiatives proposed in the Union Budget 2021-22 are - (i)The Sonnagar – Gomoh Section (263.7 km) of Eastern DFC will be taken up in PPP mode in 2021-22. Gomoh-Dankuni section of 274.3 km will be taken up in short succession;(ii)Future Dedicated Freight Corridor Projects namely East Coast corridor from LARRDIS 5 March 2021 Kharagpur to Vijayawada, East-West Corridor from Bhusaval to Kharagpur to Dankuni and North-South corridor from Itarsi to Vijayawada will be undertaken. Detailed Project Reports will be undertaken in the first phase; (iii) 100% electrification of Broad-Gauge routes will be completed by December, 2023. Broad Gauge Route Kilometers (RKM) electrified is expected to reach 46,000 RKM i.e., 72% by end of 2021 from 41,548 RKM on 1 Oct 2020; and (iv) While Focusing on Passenger Convenience and Safety, the budget has also proposed Introduction of the aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes to give a better travel experience to passengers; and Provision of indigenously developed automatic train protection on High density network and highly utilized network routes of Indian railways. This system minimized the possibility of train collision due to human error. Comparative Budget Estimate Plan Head BUDGET BUDGET Increase over BUDGET ESTIMATES ESTIMATES ESTIMATES 2020-21 2020-21 2021-22 New Lines 26971 40932 52% Doubling 21545 26116 21% Traffic Facilities 2058 5263 156% ROB/RUBs 6204 7122 15% WAY FORWARD The lockdown period was used as an opportunity by the Railways to complete more than 200 critical maintenance projects including massive track maintenance exercise, overhauling the freight business and fast tracking of the ongoing infrastructure projects like Dedicated Freight Corridors, J&K and North-East connectivity etc. In the post lockdown phase, remarkable revival in IR’s freight loading has been observed especially in the last 5 months, which shows the economic revival in the country as well as modal shift to Railways. This is due to doubling of average speed of freight trains from 23 kmph to 46 kmph, various tariff and non-tariff measures, as well as a first time ever “Freight Business Development Portal” for online booking of freight. The year is likely to close with higher loading over last year. The Government has been taking measures on a continuing basis to improve the financial position and to bring the Operating Ratio to a reasonable level. The endeavour comprises of a combination of initiatives aimed at maximizing revenue receipts and minimizing controllable revenue expenses. Revenue LARRDIS 6 March 2021 enhancing measures, inter alia, include targeting progressively higher traffic throughput, expansion of commodity basket, effective and innovative marketing strategies to capture more and more traffic, creation of additional capacity and optimum utilization of the existing rail infrastructure including rolling stock, enhancement in productivity and efficiency, improvement of passenger interface, periodic rationalization of fare and freight rates and focus on increasing the share of non-fare revenue sources in Railways’ total revenue. A long term strategic plan called the National Rail Plan has been developed to plan infrastructural capacity enhancement along with strategies to increase modal share of the Railways. The National Rail Plan is a common platform for all future infrastructural, business and financial planning of the Railways. The objective of the Plan is to create capacity ahead of demand by 2030, which in turn would cater to growth in demand right up to 2050.