Railway,Roades And Ports of India
Impact on The Indian economy
The Indian Railways contributes to India’s economic development, accounting for about one per cent of the GNP and the backbone of freight needs of the core sector. It accounts for six per cent of the total employment in the organised sector directly and an additional 2.5 per cent indirectly through its dependent organisations.
Road transport is the second important mode of transport in India. It covers every corner of the country which the railway transport even could not cover. Road transport provides the basic infrastructural facilities to both the agricultural and industrial sector of the country.
Some of the important socio- economic benefits of ports are:
• Fuels economic development – They are important links of hinterlands to points overseas. They facilitate movement of goods to and from hinterland. They increase international trade ( both exports and import).
• Development of cities – Most of the world’s major cities are port cities. Ports spur the economic activities around them like banking, finance, Insurance, logistic etc.
• Increase in Employment – Ports increase employment both directly and indirectly. Direct employment refers to employment in port related activities. Indirect employment increases due to increased industrialization and increase in other services like banking and insurance.
• Relatively Environment friendly – When compared to other transportation systems, railway transportation requires twice as much energy consumption, while road transportation requires ten times as much as sea conveyance.
• Increase world Economic Integration – Globalization has been partially successful due to cheap transportation facilitated by ports.
• Development of Infrastructure – Increase the economic activity between hinterland and ports lead to development of infrastructure including railways, roads & inland waterways.
Indian Railway
Introduction
Indian Railways is one of the world’s largest railway network consists of freight, passengers, tourist, Suburban rail systems, toy train and luxury trains. IR has 4,337 operating railway stations,operates on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones and Locomotives are consist of electric and diesel locomotives.
2. Project Planning and Implementation
1. Indian Railways entered the Billion Club in freight loading in 2012-13 by achieving 1,008 million tonnes of originating loading. The loading target fixed for 2014-15 is 1,105 million tonnes which is 4.9% higher than the achievement of 2013-14. The XIIth Plan projections of freight loading in the terminal year of the Plan (2016-17) are 1,405 million tonnes.
2. Indian Railways carried 8,425.6 million passengers in 2013-14 which is about 1,430 million higher than the population of the world put together. The annual target for passenger traffic in 2014-15 is 8,645 million, which is 2.6% higher than in 2013-14. The XIIth Plan target is 11,710 million passengers in the terminal year of the Plan.
The Challenges
1. As the growth in the economy picks up in the years to come, IR will have a challenging task ahead because of line and terminal capacity constraints in transporting the incremental traffic. Therefore, there is need for significant investment in the network, especially the HDN routes and its feeder and other important routes
2.There is a large shelf of pending projects which is estimated at Rs. 4,91,510 crore on the basis of originally estimated costs Of these, fund requirement for the prioritized works such as doubling, new lines, gauge conversion, traffic facilities, signal & telecom works, workshops and electrification is estimated at Rs 2,08,054 crore
Budget 2017
1. A Rail safety fund with a corpus of Rs 100,000 crore will be created over a period of 5 years
2. The service charge on rail tickets booked through IRCTC will be withdrawn.
3. As many as 500 rail stations will be made differently abled-friendly by providing lifts and escalators.
4. Steps will be taken to launch dedicated trains for pilgrimage and tourism
5. A new metro rail policy will be announced+ . This is expected to open up new jobs for the youth
6. At least 25 train stations are expected to be awarded during 2017-18
7. By 2019, all coaches of the Indian railways Subscribe on YouTube