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Railway Budget 2015: Freight rates up for cement, coal, steel; to mop Rs 1.2lkcr

Presenting his maiden Rail Budget, Minister Suresh Prabhu has hiked freight rate for cement, coal & iron & steel. The government has hiked freight rate by 6.3 percent for coal, 10 percent for urea, 0.8 percent for iron & steel and 2.7 percent for cement companies. However, freight rate is lowered by 1 percent for high speed diesel. The government is eyeing to rake in Rs 1.21 lakh crore in FY16 versus Rs 1.06 lakh crore in FY15.

Meanwhile, he also promised to increase annual freight capacity to 1.5 billion tonnes from 1 billion. He also envisaged Rs 8.5 lakh crore investment over five years. Prabhu added the government will partner with private sector to improve rolling stock fleet. The railways will also focus on adopting a medium-term perspectiveto focus on adopting a medium-term perspective. Dedicated freight corridor The implementation of two dedicated freight corridor projects on Eastern and Western routes has gathered pace. The government will target to award 750 km of civil contracts and 1300 km of system contracts in 2015-16. “Durgawati-Sasaram, a 55 km section of Eastern DFC is proposed to be completed in the current year. Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey (PETS) for four other DFCs is in progress and will be completed this year. We intend to explore the idea of construction of DFC feeder routes through private participation,” he said to the Parliament. Review Railways generated Rs 86,009.27 crore from freight traffic during the April 2014-January 2015 period as compared to Rs 76,501.01 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal, registering an increase of 12.43 percent. Railways carried 906.36 million tonnes (MT) of freight during April-January period as compared to 866.14 MT carried during the corresponding 10 month period last financial year, registering an increase of 4.64 percent, according to Railway Ministry data.

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com