Railways bullish on modernisation |
The railways has set an ambitious target of pumping in Rs 1.21 lakh crore for modernisation and capacity enhancement in 2016-17 at a time the transporter is facing a financial crisis as a result of the pay commission recommendations and a dip in passenger and freight traffic. This was disclosed by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu in his ministry`s annual budget presented on Feb 25, 2016. The state-run transporter has set a target to earn Rs 1.84 lakh crore from passenger fare and freight business in 2016-17, around 10% higher than the revised target for the current year. It had budgeted to earn over Rs 1.83 lakh crore in 2015-16, but as per the revised estimates it is going to earn about Rs 1.67 lakh crore. To finance its massive capital expenditure plan that`s almost double the average of previous years, railways is looking for ways to mop up investments from external sources including offshore rupee bonds (Rs 21,700 crore), institutional financing (Rs 23,000 crore), partnership with states and PPP (Rs 18,340 crore). It plans to raise Rs 12,700 crore from internal resources. The minister said this magnitude of investment calls for abandoning the business-as-usual approach and innovating to find ways of sourcing funds and executing projects.
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