(a) whether the Government has prepared any plan
for speedy expansion of the Indian Railways networks,
modernization of services and providing high quality
services to the passengers at low cost and to achieve
10 percent annual growth rate;
(b) if so, the outline of the said plan;
(c) whether steps have been taken to accelerate
Railway’s traffic growth towards the said direction;
and
(d) if so, the details thereof and the further
measures contemplated to achieve the said objectives?
MINISTER OF RAILWAYS ( SHRI MUKUL ROY )
(a) to (d): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF STARRED
QUESTION NO. 274 BY SHRI GANESH SINGH TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK
SABHA ON 30.08.2012 REGARDING EXPANSION PLAN OF RAILWAYS
(a) to (d): Network expansion, modernization and provision of
higher quality passenger services at affordable prices are
ongoing activities which are taken up by Railways through the
Five Year Plans and the Annual Plans. In the Twelfth Five Year
Plan ( for the years 2012 to 2017), for network expansion and
modernization, Railways have proposed to construct 2202 Kilometer
of New Line, 3338 Kilometer of Western and Eastern Dedicated
Freight Corridors, 3462 Kilometer of Gauge Conversion, 7635
Kilometer of Doubling and 6500 Kilometer of Electrification.
Moreover, for speedy network expansion, Railways has also
proposed a scheme, named Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana which
envisages creation of a non-lapsable fund of the order of `5
Lakh Crore funded through budgetary support towards investment
in Railways for connecting remote and backward areas over
next 10 years.
It is planned to increase the passenger transportation output
from 1062 billion Passenger Kilometer (PKM) in 2011-12 to 1760
billion PKM in 2016-17 at an annual growth rate of 10.6% during
the Twelfth Five Year Plan. The originating passengers are
envisaged to grow from 8.12 billion to 11.7 billion during the
Plan period at an annual growth rate of 7.5%. The measures
proposed in the Twelfth Five Year Plan to provide higher quality
passenger services at affordable prices include augmenting the
load of the existing services on popular routes by adding coaches,
enhancing speed of mail/express and passenger trains, introduction
of faster moving Electrical Multiple Units (EMUs) and Diesel
Multiple Units (DMUs), introduction of modern coaches with improved
passenger amenities, decongestion of passenger terminals by providing
extra platforms, development of alternate passenger terminals and
redevelopment of stations. The proposed Twelfth Five Year Plan is
under consideration of the Planning Commission and would acquire
finality after our proposals have been approved by the Planning
Commission.
To finance the Twelfth Plan, an outlay of ` 5.48 lakh crore has been
proposed by Ministry of Railways to Planning Commission. For financing
this outlay, adequate Gross Budgetary Support, successful implementation
of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in identified areas and mobilization
of internal resources through conventional and non-conventional means
would be necessary. All efforts are being made for mobilizing these
resources as the pace of network expansion and modernization will be
dependent on availability of adequate budgetary support.