Indian Railways capex jumps 36 pct to Rs 32,000 cr, retains status as key driver of public capital expenditure
The Indian Railways has achieved a robust 36% year-on-year growth in capital expenditure to Rs 32,000 crore during April-July 2017, entrenching its status of the last couple of years as a key driver of public capex. The transporter’s Q1FY18 capex jump comes on top of a 19% annual growth in its capital investments in 2016-17 and 59% in 2015-16. The railways has planned a capital expenditure of Rs 1,31,000 crore for the financial year 2017-18, of which Rs 69,000 needs to be raised through budgetary resources and Rs 62,000 crore through extra budgetary means. While expenditure from the budgetary resources till July 2017 was Rs 17,000 crore, some Rs 15,000 crore was raised from extra budgetary resources.
The Centre’s overall budgetary capex for April-June increased 39% y-o-y to Rs 68,328 crore, of which nearly 50% was defence-related. Roads, agriculture, urban development, and housing, apart from railways, were the beneficiaries due to front-loading of expenditure.
During April-July, the railways spent Rs 3,154 crore through institutional financing and Rs 6,627 crore through partnerships, a focus area since the carrier is financially constrained. These are up around 230% and 118%, respectively, compared with the same period a year ago.
The capex include investments in building tracks which saw a total spending of around Rs 8,500 crore, including construction of new lines, gauge conversion, doubling and track renewals.
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Freight corridor between Ateli & Phulera to be operational next year
The ministry of railways has started the process of acquiring 4.88 hecrates of land in Dodwadiyon Ka Bas near Phulera for the dedicated freight corridor.
The Ateli ( Rewari) to Phulera link of western rail freight corridor is expected to be ready for commercial operations of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) by March next year.
According to an official of the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), the 380km of track will easy the container traffic movement to the ports in western region. The prestigious project of the Indian Railways, the corridor will pass through the Jaipur and Ajmer division of the North Western Railway. Rewari in Haryana also comes under the Jaipur division. As far as the state is concerned, about 567km will pass through four districts of the state. This will be a dedicated freight corridor using high speed engines for transportation of containers.
The ministry of railways has started the process of acquiring 4.88 hecrates of land in Dodwadiyon Ka Bas near Phulera for the dedicated freight corridor. The notification has been issued and the land acquisition process would be completed within three months.This will pave way for the completion of the Phulera link.
The WDFC will begin at Dadri near Delhi and then will run parallel to existing line via Narnaul, Neem Ka Thana, Ringus, Phulera, Ajmer and Marwar junction. The corridor will pass through Gujarat before it terminating at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva near Navi Mumbai.
The Ateli-Phulera link will be the second stretch that will start commercial operations. The first link between New-Durgauti-Sasaram section in Bihar which is of 56km became operational in March this year. The dedicated freight corridor in the state will pass through Neem Ka Thana, Reengus, Phulera, Kishangarh, Ajmer and Marwar Junction. The land acquisition process in these parts of the state has been completed and the railways paid Rs100 crore by way of compensation.
The work from Ateli to Marwar junction is being handled by L&T in association with the Japanese company Sojitz . A sleeper plat has been set up at Marwar Junction producing over two lakh sleepers per year.
L&T to chip in
The work from Ateli to Marwar junction is being handled by L&T in association with Sojitz. The contractors are using new track machines, which can lay railway tracks at a speed of 1.5km of tracks a day. The two companies have been awarded the work in Rs4,000 crore.
http://www.dnaindia.com/jaipur/repo...i-phulera-to-be-operational-next-year-2533638