Railway Budget 2016-17: Capacity Augmentation Proposals

The Railway Budget 2016-17 is pegged at Rs. 1.21 Lakh Crore, which stands 21% higher than previous budget. Following are the capacity augmentation proposals.

Commissioning of Broad Gauge Track and track electrification

• There is a plan to commission 2800 kilometers of Broad Gauge track. This amounts to be at the rate of over 7 km per day against an average of about 4.3 Km per day in the last 6 years. The government plans to increase this to about 13 kms per day in 2017-18 and 19 kms per day in 2018-19.
• In terms of electrification, the plan is to electrify 2000 kilometers in 2016-17.

High Speed Passenger Corridor

• The Budget has proposed a high speed passenger corridor from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. For this purpose, National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC) Limited has been formed as an SPV after the budget.
• The High Speed train {Bullet Train in media circles) would be expected to cover the 508km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph.

Three new Freight Corridors

• The minister promised that the eastern (Delhi-Kolkata) and western (Delhi-Mumbai) dedicated freight corridors would be ready by 2019. In the recent budget, the minister has outlined plan to lay three more such corridors through the PPP {Public Private Partnership}.
• The three new freight corridors are:
  • North-South connecting Delhi to Chennai
  • East-West connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai
  • East Coast connecting Kharagpur to Vijayawada.
• The minister also made it clear that these three projects would be implemented on a high priority basis to ensure structuring, award and implementation in a time-bound manner through ‘innovative financing mechanisms.

Port Connectivity

• Port connectivity is an important element to ensure seamless logistics to boost country’s imports and exports. In the last year budget Railways had launched a coastal connectivity programme. Under this programme, Tuna Port {it is located in Kutch of Gujarat and is run by Kandla Port Trust} has been already connected / commissioned while work is in progress to connect Jaigarh Port {a privately operated port in Maharashtra by JSW}, Dighi Port {Mumbai}, Rewas Port {Mumbai} and Paradip are under implementation.
• For 2016-17, the government has proposed to undertake implementation of rail connectivity for the ports of Nargol {Gujarat} and Hazira {Surat Port} under PPP.