Slowdown hits Railways' gross traffic receipts

Economic slowdown had its toll in the Railways due to which gross traffic receipts of Rs 399.39 billion was revised downwards at Rs 377.20 billion for this fiscal year resulting in resource generation shortfall of Rs 8.88 billion, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said on Tuesday.

But vigorous efforts made by the Railways to control expenditure would result in a saving of Rs 10.90 billion in ordinary working expenses in the current year, Kumar said presenting the 2002-02 Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Accordingly these expenses have been kept at Rs 291 billion in the revised estimates as against Rs 301.90 billion of the Budget estimates.

Giving details, Kumar said: "Freight traffic remained stagnant for the first five months of the financial year, but with resurgence thereafter and railways marketing efforts, we now hope to carry 489 million tonnes of freight against the target of 500 million tonnes this year."

As a result, estimates of goods earnings have been revised downwards from Rs 252.35 billion to Rs 246.10 billion.

Passenger earnings, however, showed a steady progress and were at Rs 114 billion, marginally higher than the budget estimates of Rs 113.87 billion.

Kumar said the other earnings have also been increased by Rs 100 million in the revised estimates in the current year.

The expected revenue from nontraditional source of leasing of right of way for optical fibre cable network will not materialise and sundry other earnings have been reduced from Rs 17.17 billion of Budget estimates to Rs 9 billion in the revised estimates.

The government has also extended an additional budgetary support of Rs 8.98 billion during the current year for accelerated progress of certain selected projects.

The budgeted investment in BOLT and Own Your Wagon Scheme is, however, unlikely to materialise during the year.

Taking this into consideration, the Annual Plan investment for the year comes to Rs 94.57 billion, compared to Rs 110.90 billion in the budget estimates.

After taking into account the additional amount of Rs 14 billion approved by Parliament towards Special Railway Safety Fund, the total plan expenditure works out to Rs 108.57 billion.

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