Railways Plan outlay may rise 20%

Indian Railways is likely to see a 20 per cent increase in its annual Plan outlay for 2006-07 to around Rs 18,400 crore. The enhanced total outlay for 2005-06 stood at Rs 15,349 crore, which was a 14 per cent hike over Rs 13,425 crore in the previous year.

The original outlay for 2005-06 was Rs 11,827 crore. However, since Rs 3,522 crore was earmarked for the Special Safety Railway fund, the total figure went up to Rs 15,349 crore.

The railways are also expected to declare an overall increase in gross earnings by well over 15 per cent for 2005-06. The increase is primarily on account of substantial growth in freight and passenger traffic.

According to sources, there is a nearly 8 per cent (projected 7.4 per cent) growth in passenger traffic. Freight traffic is believed to have grown much faster than the passenger segment, registering growth of nearly 14 per cent (projected 9.9 per cent).

These figures for the period till January end reveal that the trend of growth is being maintained and will continue into the next fiscal. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad has promised that the Rail Budget will be a "historic one, with something for every section of society".

However, Prasad's demand for an increase in the gross Budgetary support by Rs 1,000 crore over the projected Rs 9,061 crore may not be fulfilled, sources say.

His ministry had demanded the extra Rs 1,000 crore in order to speed up its four mega bridge projects.

This may see Prasad further enhancing the railways' internal resource potential. The railways have already increased their internal funding by 26 per cent during the current year to Rs 5,950 crore. In this fiscal, the internal resource component totalled Rs 4,718 crore.

The railways had also projected an increase for various infrastructure projects of Rs 6,000 crore, excluding the National Rail Vikas Yojana. The National Rail Vikas Yojana was projected to cost Rs 1,892 crore, of which, Rs 15,00 crore would go into laying a new line in Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramullah.