The Union Finance Ministry has agreed to contribute partially to a new dedicated railway safety fund.
It is named as ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ and presented in the upcoming Union Budget 2017-18.
The proposed safety fund will be utilised for track improvement, bridge rehabilitation, rolling stock replacement, human resource development, improved inspection system and safety work at level crossing.
The Finance Ministry is likely to grant a fresh infusion of only INR. 5,000 crore in the upcoming financial year out of the initial proposed corpus of INR. 20,000 crore.
About INR. 10,000 crore will be earmarked from the Central Road Fund (CRF).
This is collected by levying a cess on diesel and petrol at present for safety-related work.
Railways may now be asked to fund the remaining INR. 5,000 crore for the initial corpus from its own resources.
For this, Indian Railways may either have to bring back a cess on rail tickets to finance its share of Rail Safety Fund or look to fund it from non-budgetary resources.
About the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh- Railways requested Union Finance Ministry to create ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh.
- This is a ‘non-lapsable’ safety fund of INR. 20,000 crore over five years.
- Its request was based on the recommendations of a high-level safety review committee.
- This was headed by Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman Atomic Energy Commission.
- The Committee, in its report submitted in 2012, had projected an investment requirement of INR. 1 lakh crore on safety over five years.
