INDIAN RAILWAY’s BUSINESS PLAN 2017-18

INDIAN RAILWAY’s BUSINESS PLAN 2017-18

Overview

• Subsequent to Railway Budget 2016-17- Several initiatives were launched in Passenger, Freight and Non-fare Business segments over the last one year after several rounds of interaction with stakeholders.
• The Business Plan 2017-18 is a continuation of our sustained efforts to make the journeys of our passengers more pleasurable and to make Indian Railway’s Freight Business more responsive to the needs of our customers.
• This Business Plan details 50 actionable initiatives covering the core business segments of Indian Railway’s Passenger and Freight Sectors as well as new avenues in Parcel and Non-fare business, that Indian Railways shall be focused on, in 2017-18.

Salient Features of Business Plan 2017-18

Freight Segment

• Upgrading the Delivery System by initiatives like revamp of railway goodsheds through partnerships with stakeholders (Pilot for 10 goodsheds followed by policy for scaling up), New Delivery Models like Ro-Ro, Dwarf Containers (Being launched today), Road-Railers (Between Palwal and Melpakkam), new terminals (100 by end of 2017-18) .
• Better freight services and rationalized tariffs to expand the freight basket(more commodities like Bulk Cement, Steel Products etc. to be taken out of restricted list for Containerization), long term contracts with Freight Customers, End-to-End solutions (through partnerships at 10 goodsheds), Rationalization of weighment policy, Timetabled trains with premium on assured transit time (50 paths to be carved out in 2017-18) and procurement of specialized rolling stock for sectors like automobiles etc.
• Operational strategies to enhance throughput like procurement of 3000 25T BOXNS wagons in 2017-18, leverage IT and to improve asset utilization.
• International Freight Services under which a demo train run between Bangladesh and India and a meeting of CEOs of railways of concerned countries to boost intermodal regional connectivity is planned in 2017-18

Passenger Segment

• Transformation of ticketing by migrating towards cashless, paperless ticketing (6000 PoS machines and 1000 Ticket Vending Machines in 2017-18), Aadhaar -based ticketing and an integrated ticketing App by May 2017.
• Providing comfort and a pleasurable journey experience through induction of new LHB Rakes(about 2300 coaches in 2017-18), adding comfort features to coaches, improvement in Catering and converting 25 stations to Digipay mode in 2017-18 by digitizing entire station transactions.
• Fulfilling travel needs by scaling up the new train products like Humsafar (7 new services by 2017), Antyodaya (7 new services by June 2017), Tejas (3 new services by June 2017) etc., Meeting demands surges through adequate special trains and coaches, A new policy for rail tourism including development of Hill Railways through partnerships besides several new Tourist Friendly Packages.

New Business Avenues

• Enhancing Parcel Business through New partnership with the Postal Department to provide End-to-End solution in Parcel Traffic (further proliferation beyond the 3rd train inaugurated on 27th Feb), and leveraging IT to provide efficient Booking, Handling and Tracking including Rolling out of PLUTO- The new Parcel Tracking App, New Courier Service between Delhi and Chennai etc., Rolling out of Parcel Management Systems to leverage IT and provide efficient Parcel Booking, Handling and Tracking etc.
• Augmenting Non-fare revenues by monetization of Railways’ hard and soft assets through proliferation of Rail Display Network (RDN) at 408 A-1 and A class stations in 2017-18, New policy on Out-of-Home advertising to generate Rs 6000 Crores in 10 years, About 2000 new ATMs, Train advertising, Content-on-demand and Rail Radio besides monetized apps for complaints/feedback and Cab Booking.
• The initiatives enlisted in Business Plan 2017-18 carry specific targets and timelines. These will form the roadmap for the transformative journey of Indian Railway towards its vision of becoming an ‘engine of growth’ for the Indian Economy.

Source : PIB