Railway Minister Spells Out Five Point Execution Strategy for Transforming Indian Railways

The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu while presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today has said that the goals of transforming Indian Railways will be achieved with a five point execution strategy. These are: a) Adopting a medium-term perspective: Budget proposals to mark beginning of a Five Year Action Plan to transform the Railways. PROPOSED INVESTMENT PLAN (2015-2019) Item Amount (Rs in crore) Network Decongestion (including DFC, Electrification, Doubling including electrification and traffic facilities) 199320 Network Expansion (including electrification) 193000 National Projects (North Eastern & Kashmir connectivity projects) 39000 Safety (Track renewal, bridge works, ROB, RUB and Signalling & Telecom) 127000 Information Technology / Research 5000 Rolling Stock (Locomotives, coaches, wagons – production & maintenance) 102000 Passenger Amenities 12500 High Speed Rail & Elevated corridor 65000 Station redevelopment and logistic parks 100000 Others 13200 TOTAL 8,56,020 b) Building Partnerships: This will require partnering with key stakeholders: States, PSU’s, partner with multilateral and bi-lateral organizations & other governments to gain access to long term financing and technology from overseas, the private sector to improve last mile connectivity, expand fleet of rolling stock and modernize our station infrastructure. c) Leveraging additional resources: Indian Railways envisages investment of Rs. 8.5 lakh crore in next five years to be mobilized from multiple sources to cater to funding i.e multilateral development banks, pension funds. d) Revamping management practices, systems, processes, and re-tooling of human resources: ·        Targeted operating ratio for 2015-16 at 88.5% against 91.8%in 2014-15: best in the last 9 years. ·        Indian Railways to speed up decision making, tighten accountability, improve management information systems: training and development of human resource. e) To set standards for Governance and Transparency