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Indian Railways have taken measures to enhance the availability of plan funds for various railway projects.
National Rail Vikas Yojana at a cost of Rs. 15,000 crores has been launched to remove capacity bottlenecks by strengthening the Golden Quadrilateral, rail connectivity to ports and construction of four mega bridges.
Steps for tariff rationalization are afoot from 2002-2003 onwards.
Participation of State Governments in various projects is being encouraged.
The projects, undertaken on strategic consideration, are being financed by the Ministry of Defence.
Public-private participation in certain identified projects like Pipavav and Mundra Ports links has been entered into.
Joint venture with State Governments like K-RIDE, HMRDC, and Kutch Railway Company on various railway transport projects has also been undertaken.
The Railways’ Annual Plan for the year 2004-2005 has been fixed at Rs. 14,498 crores, which is about Rs. 1600 crores higher than the previous year. It includes internal resources of Rs. 2870 crores, budgetary support of Rs. 4,844 crores (including Rs. 300 crores for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramullah new line national project) and Rs. 3,334 crores of safety funds.
In addition, the Planning Commission has given an additional budgetary support of Rs. 1,137 crores recently, which includes Rs. 237 crores under Capital for undertaking various modernization works and Rs. 900 crores as contribution to the Special Railway Safety Fund.
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