Why Orissa expects more in the Rail Budget ?

see a change of track if the vision document of the Ministry of Railways tabled in Parliament recently is pursued with sincerity .

The document points out that with negative spread in passenger earnings, sustainability lies in freight earnings. Coal, iron ore, pig iron, steel and cement etc. form the bulk of freight earnings. It concedes that much of Railways’ freight earnings from coal by 2020 will primarily come from two coalfields namely Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (Ib Valley and Talcher) and South Eastern Coalfields .Railways currently transports 50 per cent of the domestic steel products. So to generate more revenue by 2020, the focus is mainly on Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh on the basis of MoUs signed in these states .The Railways expects to generate more revenue by transporting fly ash to cement plants and iron ore by 2020 and Orissa comes into focus again. Sprucing up the rail network in Orissa is in Indian Railways’ interests as currently the East Coast Railways contributes Rs 6,062 crore of the total Rs 48,000 crore per annum freight revenue nationally .But the rider is, saddled with 109 new rail projects including five from Orissa the Railways has failed to allocate more than Rs 1,500 crore a year that hardly suffices the escalated costs due to delays. The annual surplus extra budgetary resources could make up for only 64 per cent of the project cost, leaving a gap of 36 per cent .For the gap, the document has mulled on solutions like bearing of 50 per cent of the project cost by the State concerned and creating a dedicated fund called Accelerated Railway Development Fund (ARDF) etc. Provisioning from State would ensure assured allocation from Railways for the timely completion of the projects, the document mentions .In Orissa, the balance fund required for completion of the five new rail line projects underway for a decade now stood at a whopping Rs 2,319 crore as on April 1, 2009. For two of its gauge conversions, the amount required was Rs 42 crore and for the 10 doubling projects it was Rs 1,052 crore. Thus, the total capital investment needed as on April 1, 2009 was Rs 3,413 crore. It is seen that strategically important new projects like Talcher/ Hindol -Berhampur/Gopalpur, Bargarh - Nawapara road, Rupsa - Bangiriposi and Gunupur- Theruvali have not taken off despite being revenue potent for the Railways .Importantly, of the Rs 10,000 crore surplus of Railways, East Coast Railways currently accounts for Rs 2,800 crore per annum. But for new lines, the capital investment in 2008- 09 stood at a paltry Rs 62 crore only - at only around Rs 12 crore per project. And, at this rate the five new projects in Orissa would see completion only by 2050! If the Indian Railways goes by the road map to complete all the backlogs by 2020, the capital investment for the new lines require around Rs 300 crore per annum with the total capital needs of ECoR estimated at over Rs 4,000 crore .