Railway Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda, while presenting the Railway Budget for 2014-15 in Parliament today, said the Indian Railways is committed to meeting its social service obligations despite rising costs
The social service obligation of Railways rose from 9.4 percent of Gross Traffic Receipts in 2000-01 to 16.6% in 2010-11. In 2012-13, such obligations stood over Rs. 20,000 crore, a Railway Minister release said.
"The total investment, which is the Plan Outlay under budgetary sources, in the same year, was Rs. 35,241 crore. As an amount, the burden of social service obligation is more than half of the size of our Plan Outlay under budgetary sources," release added.
An organization spending an amount equivalent to more than half of its Plan Outlay under budgetary sources on social obligations, can hardly have adequate resources for its development works. However, Indian Railways would continue to fulfill its social obligations, the Minister said.
