As the railways ministry goes to Congress party after being held by coalition partners for around 16 years, the wave of change has already started. For the first time, the railways has prioritized its 360 pending projects worth more than around INR 4 lakh crore and tied up funds with them at zonal level. The fiscal prudence was very much evident in railways as for the first time in a decade or so; it did not go for any supplementary demand for grants in monsoon or winter session.
A senior official of the railway ministry said that “The railway is right now focusing on the existing shelf of the projects. We have tied up funds for works at zonal level and the power to reappropriate funds from one work to another vest with the Board now in contrast to the zone earlier.”
The official said that we also did not go for any supplementary demand for grants during parliamentary session as the intention was to focus our resources on the budgeted works rather than starting new works.
Experts said that with the railway minister announcing new non commercially viable projects, the resources of railways are spread very thinly over it. With the railways going for freight hike of around 20% to 25% in March, 2012, railways is expecting a surplus of around INR 12,000 crore.
The targeted annual plan outlay of around INR 60,100 crore in 2012-13 is expected to be financed by Gross Budgetary Support of INR 24,000 crore, internal resources of INR 18,050 crore, extra budgetary resources of INR 16,050 crore and railways safety fund of INR 2,000 crore.
Source:
http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/Indian_Railways_prioritizes_pending_projects_worth_more_than_INR_4_lakh/296294.html
