Govt. may have to foot bill for rail safety fund: 

Govt. may have to foot bill for rail safety fund: 

Context

• The Ministry of Railways knocks Finance Ministry’s door to contribute its share towards the Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Rosh (RRSK) as the public utility is staring at an earnings shortfall
  

What is the concern?

• The Indian railways have utilized a quarter of the safety fund
• It has spent Rs 5,031 crore from the RRSK in the first six months of the current year.
• Railways sundry earnings had declined sharply by 35.7% during this period.
• Income from non-fare revenues, including land lease, advertising, PSU dividends and catering department, form part of the sundry earnings.
  

What is the need of safety funds in railways?

• Railway accidents not only lead to immense loss of lives and property, but also impact the psyche of general public for whom railways is a primary mode of transport.
• Rail accident does not merely involve damage to rail infrastructure alone.
• There is a huge cost to society as well, society pays dearly through lost lives, lost livelihood, loss of productivity, disability, medical expenses, disruption of traffic, loss of the wagons etc.
• The highest cost is the loss of passenger confidence which may translate into loss of revenue in future for the railways.
• The world’s fourth-largest rail network ferries millions of passengers every day, but doesn’t have a good safety record.
• In the last three years, at least 650 people have died in train accidents.
  

What is RRSK?

• Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Rosh (RRSK) is a dedicated fund for critical safety-related works.
• In the budget 2017 – 18, ministry had announced the setting up a special safety fund with an amount of more than Rs. 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.
• Indian Railways will hire close to 200,000 workers over the next few years in a recruitment drive aimed at strengthening its safety and ground patrolling divisions.
  

What is the purpose of creating RRSK?

• The fundamental purpose of creating RRSK is to ensure funds for implementing Safety works on Railways.
• A decongested network is prone to accidents due to limited margin for error and hence decongesting such network enhances railway safety.
  Increase in fares
• Railways have decided to increase passenger fares for raising its resources in order to create a special fund.
• A safety cess will be levied to generate funds for strengthening track and upgrading signalling system and elimination of unmanned level crossings among other safety-related works to prevent mishaps.
• According to the plan, the cess on Sleeper, Second Class and AC-3 will be higher while it will be marginal for AC-2 and AC-1.
  
• With earnings deficit, the Ministry of Railways may find it difficult to contribute its share towards the newly- constituted Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Rosh (RRSK) – a dedicated fund for critical safety-related works.