Spare land to bring fair revenue

NON-TRADITIONAL REVENUE

Sundry earnings are targeted to grow 89%.

Anticipating significantly higher revenues from commercial utilisation of spare land, the railways expect sundry other earnings at Rs 5,000 crore in 2008-09, an over 89 per cent growth from the revised estimate of Rs 2,637 crore in 2007-08.

The railways also expect significant amount of revenue as share from budget hotels run by one of its public sector units, the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation.

Of the total earnings of railways, sundry earnings are expected to be over 6 per cent in 2008-09, up from around 3 per cent in 2006-07.

Expecting higher dividend from its nine public sector undertakings (PSUs), earnings from parcel, advertisement and land lease, the revised estimate of sundry earnings for 2007-08 is Rs 2,637 crore, an increase of about 32 per cent from the budget estimate of Rs 2,000 crore.

Commercial use of railway land by Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) will also give a boost to revenues.

"It is also envisaged that RLDA would raise Rs 4,000 crore during 2008-09 by making commercial use of railways' surplus land," Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said.

Among the initiatives, e-ticketing facility to wait-listed passengers, reserved and unreserved rail tickets through mobile phones, and multi-level car parking lots at 30 major stations would boost the revenues of the railways.

Increase in unreserved ticketing systems counters to 15,000 and automatic ticket vending machines to 6,000 will also generate revenues.

License fees for running container trains, wagon leasing, and development of goods terminals by private parties are expected to contribute to future revenue growth.

Through public-private partnerships, the railways plan to provide several value-added services, including modern handling facilities, warehousing and multi-modal logistic parks. These would bring in new sources of income.