Railway budget 2016: hope to generate rs 1,84,820 crore; up 10% of revised target: suresh prabhu

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presenting the second Railway Budget 2016 said that India Railways have a saving of Rs 8,720 crore from previous budget estimates Railway Minister Suresh

Prabhu presenting the second Railway Budget 2016 in the Parliament on Thursday said that India Railways have a saving of Rs 8,720 crore from previous budget estimates. He said, "We hope

to generate revenues to the order of Rs 1,84,820 crores." The Indian Railways is an organisation that has stood the test of time, says Prabhu. He says the budget is reflective of the

aspirations of the entire railway family, the common man who have been talking to him on social media and meeting him, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  "These are challenging times.

We need to reorganise, restructure. We need to bring in new structure," he said. "We will exploit new sources of revenue," he said.  With regards to new norms he said,

"We will take zero-based budget approach. We will improve efficiency practices. We will continue to innovate."  Regarding restructure he said that there is a need to re-imagine,

revisit all processes, rules to emerge stronger.   This year, Indian Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu is expected to present a Rs 1.25 lakh crore budget. People's expectations are high

about the announcement of new trains and improvement in passenger amenities. Besides, railway finances have come under tremendous strain as passenger fares were not hiked in the last budget

and the minister faces a dilemma whether to raise fares and freight rates. The railways have earned over Rs 136,079 crore as against the target of Rs 141,416 crore during April-January, a

decline of 3.77% In 2014, in the railway budget presented by the NDA government, a 14% hike in passenger fares was announced across the board, while a 10% hike was announced in 2015. Prabhu

in the previous years Railway Budget (2015) did not announce any new trains in his budget speech but said that studies are on going and announcements regarding new trains would happen at a

later stage in this budget session of the parliament. The finance ministry had allocated Rs 40,000 crore in budgetary in 2015 to support to Indian Railways. The Railways had looked to raise

nearly Rs 18,000 crore from the markets to support its expansion and modernisation plans. Although, his move to add Rs 4000 crore to the kitty of railways be way of freight increases had not

gone down well.