The Railway Convention Committee headed by BJD MP Arjun Charan Sethi in its report tabled in parliament today turned down the Railways' argument for moratorium of the payment of dividend for five years 2012-17 (12th Five-Year Plan).
The committee suggested that railways should observe greater financial discipline and mobilise additional resources through tariff revision-- especially in view of rising operational, fuel and human resource costs.
It also favoured rationalisation of freight fares and asked the Railways to make sincere efforts to raise additional revenues through non-traditional resources such as usage of surplus land, advertisements and station developments.
The committee recommended that railways should explore ways of raising their revenue and avenues for resource mobilisation while curbing wasteful expenditure.
"Committee finds that the partial rationalisation of freight and fare structure is expected to generate additional revenue of more than Rs 16,000 crore," the report said.
The committee is of the view that railways should mobilise additional resources by taking some rational and financially prudent steps and should take measures to avoid building of negative balance in the funds, it said.
The committee stated that in view of their difficult financial position, it is only prudent to garner revenues by exploring all avenues including use of land for commercial purposes.
The committee noted that there was huge backlog of ongoing new line projects, gauge conversion projects and doubling of lines, traffic facilities and railway electrification workshops.
Expressing concern over the inordinate delay in execution of most of these projects, the committee observed that huge funds have been blocked without any timely use.
It has been stated that the railways would require Rs 1,25,000 crore to complete these projects.
