Prabhu presents rly ‘mini-Budget’ today

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu (pictured) is set to launch on Thursday an Indian Railways Freight and Passenger Business Action Plan for 2017-18, which his officials are terming a “mini-Budget”.

“Traditionally, a normal railway Budget has about 135 pages, of which about 100 pages are on the action plan for the financial year. With the Budgets (rail and general) getting merged, we are unable to present it before Parliament. This launch is like a miniBudget,” said an official.

The Narendra Modi government has broken a 92year tradition of presenting a separate railway Budget from this year. The rail Budget got separated from the general Budget in 1924, when it accounted for 70 per cent of the total Budget.

In his merged Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said capital and development expenditure on railways in 2017-18 would be ~131,000 crore. He also proposed a Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh, a safety fund worth ~1 lakh crore over five years.

The initiatives Prabhu will be launching include a policy to have ‘long-term contracts’ with major customers.

“This would mean we will get assured orders from industries like cement, fertiliser and steel. If a particular customer outperforms the contract, they will be given additional concessions of five to 25 per cent,” the official added.

The ministry will also flag off the demonstration run of a RoRo (Roll on-Roll off ) service across the National Capital Region, to reduce road congestion and improve the environment. The minister will also flag off a doublestack dwarf container train.

In his merged Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said capital and development expenditure on railways in 201718 would be ~131,000 crore. He also proposed a Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh, a safety fund worth ~1 lakh crore over five years