Minister keeps an eye on safety

RAILWAY BUDGET

Safety continued to get top billing in Railways' scheme of things with Railway Minister Nitish Kumar allocating Rs 3,199 crore for the next financial year for safety, which is Rs 363 crore or 12.8 per cent more than the revised estimate for 2003-04.

In the interim Budget presented in the Lok Sabha, he has also increased the allocation for pension in 2004-05 by 4.83 per cent or Rs 300 crore to Rs 6,500 crore.

This increase, however, comes after Kumar lowered the allocation for the fund in the current financial year by Rs 295 crore. The allocation for Railway Pension Fund for this financial year has been revised downwards 4.54 per cent to Rs 6,200 crore from Rs 6,495 crore.

The outlay for 2004-05 has been increased by Rs 300 crore.

The government has set aside Rs 2,795 crore for Special Railway Safety Fund (SRSF) for the next financial year, which is Rs 395 crore more the revised estimate of Rs 2,400 crore for 2003-04.

In the current financial year, total net allocation for SRSF was Rs 2,311 crore, which included Rs 1,600 crore contribution from the general exchequer and Rs 711 crore from the safety surcharge.

This has been raised by another Rs 40 crore in the revised estimates. Progress has been made on projects to be undertaken through SRSF and the Railways expect to come closer to the targets set in the Five-Year Plan, by the end of the current financial year.

Track renewal of 8,500 kilometres out of the targeted 16,500 kilometres through SRSF is expected to be completed.

Around 1,350 bridges of the targeted 2,700 bridges are expected to be rehabilitated. The signalling installation at 444 stations out of the 1500 targeted stations will be replaced, and of the 5,300 tracks to be provided 1,675 track circuits would be provided.

An annual outlay of Rs 600 crore has been fixed for the Railway Development fund, which is equal to the Budget estimate for 2003-04.

The outlay for the current financial year has been revised upwards by Rs 130 crore. Kumar has set apart Rs 2,000 crore for the Depreciation Reserve Fund for the next financial year.

Kumar has, however, earmarked Rs 75 crore extra over the Budget estimate of Rs 2,105 crore for the Fund in the revised estimate for the current financial year.