Fourteen lakh crore required in 10 yrs for railways, says Trivedi

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Fourteen lakh crore required in 10 yrs for railways, says Trivedi 
Clean Media Correspondent 
New Dilhi: Mar 14: (CMC)    With safety as the prime focus, Union minister Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday spelt out five priority areas for his ministry over the 12th Five Year Plan. "My focus will be safe safety, safety, safety," Trivedi told the Lok Sabha  while presenting the rail budget for the next fiscal in the Lok Sabha. He added this was the decision he took as soon as he assumed charge of his ministry last year against the backdrop of a rail accident in Uttar Pradesh.


"I vow to target zero deaths," he said in his maiden rail budget speech. "I also propose to set up an independent railway safety authority, as recommended by an expert group headed by the former Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar."

The other four focus areas listed by the minister were consolidation, de-congestion and capacity augmentation, modernisation and bringing down operating ratio.

Trivedi, a member of the Trinamool Congress, said the operating ratio of the railways -- amount spent on running the network against revenues -- will be lowered to 84.5% from the current 95 percent, and to 74% by the terminal year of the 12th plan.

This is key to the network being able to garner money for expansion and modernisation.

The minister said he was looking at the current budget not as an exercise for the next fiscal alone, but also for the entire five year plan, drawing from the Vision 2020 document of his predecessor and current West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.