Working to restructure, rejuvenate railways: Prabhu

Committing to restructure and rejuvenate the cash-strapped railways, Minister Suresh Prabhu today said he is looking for new funding avenues, including a safety cess, and will review project financing norms to ensure best returns on investment.
He also brushed aside criticism of the proposal to introduce expensive bullet trains, saying the government has managed to secure a soft loan of Rs 1 lakh crore from Japan at an interest as low as 0.1 per cent for a period of 50 years.
The technology which India will get from Japan will help in improving the railway systems in the country, he said in Lok Sabha while replying to a debate on the Railway Budget 2016-17 which was later passed by the House after rejection of a host of cut motions.

In the course of his reply to the debate during which opposition parties criticised the functioning of the railways, Prabhu appreciated former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for signing the MoU with Japan for bullet train project.
Insisting that the number of accidents has come down, he said the Ministry is looking at a "safety cess" to supplement its effort to eliminate unmanned crossing which are the major cause for mishaps.
"I have announced plans for setting up Rs 1 lakh crore safety fund (Rashtriya Rail Sanrakshan Kosh). We have taken up the proposal with Ministry of Finance. We are trying to leverage it through some kind of security surcharge," he said.

"It is the beginning of a long march," he said as he recalled the steps taken by the Ministry by substantially raising capital expenditure to Rs 1.21 lakh crore and improving rail safety.

Prabhu said there was a need to change the railways'
accounting system to make it more outcome-oriented. "You need a strategy to rejuvenate railways.. We have to work together".
Listing out the steps being taken by his Ministry, he said there was a need for restructuring of the organisation for better functioning, organising tariff structure and also expanding freight basket and review primary rules for projects.
The Railway Minister said the concept of development fund, depreciation fund is 50-60 year old and under the new accounting procedure, most expenses are being done under the capital expenditure head, which has increased dramatically.

He said there was a need to raise money from external sources because that would help railways to offer better services and improving infrastructure.
"We will review project financing norms... Monitor equity RR (rate of return), debt service coverage ratio to ensure returns are calculated in a right manner," he said.
The Ministry is trying to increase speed of all other trains by removing bottlenecks and decongest network, he said.
"Common people are not sufferring because of bullet train. What we are doing is increase speed of every train, including passenger trains," he said, adding that allocation to all states have increased exponentially in 2016-17.

With regard to deaths on account of accidents at unmanned railway crossings, he said the number has come down from 135 in 2014-15 to 107 in 2015-16.
India's first rail university will come up in Vadodara, he said, adding that the intention would be to bring in more trains connecting pilgrimage places.
Participating in discussion earlier in the day, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the government in Lok Sabha over the functioning of railways, saying it was indulging more in marketing gimmick while the funds under various heads have been cut down, impacting rail operations and safety.
"They (government) are misleading people. They are saying we are doing so much, when actually they are not... They are diverting attention of people... You people indulge more in marketing than actual work," Kharge said.