Railway Budget 2016-17: Other Proposals for Farmers, Freight, Industry, Environment etc.

March 14, 2016 March 14, 2016

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The budget has proposed encouraging development of cold storage on vacant land near freight terminals. Local farmers and fishermen would be given preferential usage of the facility.
Railway will issue a policy on this context in next three months. Railways have also proposed to lease land along tracks for floriculture / horticulture.

To handle declining modal share of freight trains, Railways plans to expand the freight basket of the railways. Currently, the freight basket of Indian Railways is dominated by 10 bulk commodities which enjoy a share of around 88%.
To expand the revenue base, Railways need to look into other commodities also. The railways are doing a fully fledged market study to understand demand / supply scenario towards this.

Review of tariff policy to evolve a competitive rate structure vis-a-vis other modes, permit multi-point loading/unloading and apply differentiated tariffs to increase utilization of alternate routes.
Signing long term tariff contracts with key freight customers using pre-determined price escalation principles.
To develop Rail side logistic parks and warehousing in PPP mode
10 goods sheds to be developed by Transport Logistics Company of India (TRANSLOC) in 2016-17.
Inaugurating soon India’s first rail auto hub in Chennai to capture automobile traffic.
Exploring feasibility of opening up leasing of general purpose wagons.
Appointing Key Customer Managers to liaison with our major freight stakeholders.

To reduce energy consumption in non-traction area by 10% to 15%; all new light provisions will be LED luminaire only
More than 2,000 locations provided with Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) facility; RWH systems will be provided in a phased manner in all establishments having rooftop areas of more than 200 square metres
Environmentally friendly composite sleepers made up of recycled plastic waste will be used over all girder bridges
Tender documents for 50 MW solar plants at rooftop issued and facility for another 100 MW being set up
To commission 132.5 MW of windmill power plants in 2016-17
Automatic coach washing plants to be commissioned in major coaching depots with a holding of more than 500 coaches
To convert all production units as well as at least one workshop in each Zonal Railway as green industrial unit

To tie up with health ministry for ensuring an exchange between Railways hospitals and Government hospitals.
Introduce ‘AYUSH’ systems in 5 Railway hospitals.
All gangmen to be provided devices called ‘Rakshak’ which will intimate them about approaching trains.
To reduce weight of the tools carried by gangmen while patrolling
Provide toilets and air-conditioning in cabs for loco pilots.
one C T Venugopal chair on Strategic Finance, research and policy development
One Kalpana Chawla chair on geo-spatial technology for IR.
India’s first Rail University to come up at Vadodara
Skill development on IR premises with Ministry of Skill Development
Railway Workshops and Production Units to develop ‘Centres of Excellence for Skill Development’, focussing on one/two specialized activities for the general public
Join hands with prominent NGOs to provide skilling to people in remote areas including wards of Railways employees.

Mizoram and Manipur will be brought on Broad Gauge map with commissioning of the Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge Conversion projects.
Decongestion work on the Jalandhar- Jammu line, an important link to the valley, is going on in full swing.
Doubling of two bridges will be commissioned by March 2016, while the other two bridges will be completed by 2016-17.