MANAGING OF VARIOUS RAILWAY FUNDS

MANAGING OF VARIOUS RAILWAY FUNDS

1.1 The Railways maintain the following funds for different purposes viz

INTERNAL FUNDS

a)     Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF)

b)     Pension Fund

c)    Development Fund

d)   Capital Fund

RESERVE FUNDS

234 Railway Revenue Reserve Fund – This is a minor head under the major head 816-revenue Reserve Funds (under J-Reserve Funds-(a) Reserve Funds bearing interest) the account of the Fund will be maintained in the Office of the Railway Board only. The Fund will be credited mainly with appropriation from revenue surplus, interest on the balances of the fund and loans from General Revenues. The accounts of the Fund will be debited with (i) such sums as may be required for dividend equalisation that is to say to make up the shortfall in the revenue surplus available for payment of dividend to the General Revenues, (ii) repayment of loans form General Revenue and interest on loan. The balance of the fund will be carried forward from year to year.

Fund is closed.

235. Railway Development Fund- This is a minor head under the major head 817- Development Funds (under J-Reserve Funds-(a)-Reserve Funds bearing interest). The accounts of the Fund will be maintained in railway board’s Office. The Fund will be credited with appropriation from revenue surplus, interest on Fund balances and loans from General Revenue. The withdrawals from the Fund will be in accordance with the rules of the Fund, namely to meet the expenditure on providing amenities for passengers and other railway users, labour welfare works, unremunerative operating improvements etc. The balance of the Fund will be carried forward from year to year.

Fund is closed.

237 Accident Compensation, Safety and Passenger Amenities Fund - This is a minor head under the major head 821-General and other Reserve Funds (under J-Reserve Funds, (a) Reserve Funds bearing interest). The Fund will be credited with the amount collected as surcharge on passenger tickets (towards accident compensation etc.) and interest on the balance in the Fund. The Fund will be debited with (a) payments of compensation to passengers involved in railway accidents, (b) expenditure on safety works such as Track Circuiting or Axle Counters, Automatic warning System, Vigilance Control Device, Lifting Barriers at level crossings, inter-locking of level crossing gates with signals and such other safety works as may be authorised to be financed out of this fund from time to time and (c) expenditure on specified items of passenger amenities and allied works such as provision of platforms and covers there on, Train indicator Boards, Rest Shelters for licensed porters etc. The balances of the Fund will be carried forward from year to year.

Fund is closed.

OLWR :

This fund is meant for debiting those expenditure Which are costing more  than Rs 1 Lakh and upto Rs 10 Lakhs.  New Minor Limits.  The object of this fund is to enable those  Expenditure costing more than Rs 10 Lakhs to be charged not To Revenue but to this fund.  This would reduce the Revenue Expenditure  considerably.

Now closed

External Funds:

1.     Market borrowing through Indian Railway Finance  Corporation IRFC  Raising bonds in  market Fund Rolling Stock production On lease basis Charges 16 % p a

2.     General Exchequer – support from GOI Interest bearing loan in perpetuity 7 % p a

3.     Railway Safety Fund – a share from the Central Road Fund – every lr of petrol sold railways get 12.5 paise and diesel 6.25 paise meant for construction of ROB/RUB,  manning unmanned level crossing

4.     Special Railway Safety Fund –  non lapsable fund Rs 15000 Crores for renewal and Rplacement of tracks, bridges,  Rolling Stock Over aged coaches and wagons,  signaling gears

5.     Ministry of Defence for rail lines in  strategic areas – Udhampur – Katra – Baramulla – Quazigund 100 % support

6.     North East Development Forum – for all projects in the seven North Eastern States

7.     State Participation: Since the construction of new Lines have cost dearly to the railways, the RailwayMinisters Namely Shri George Fernandez and Shri Nitish Kumar have Raised this issue in the Parliament through “Status Paper On Railways” and a “White Paper on Railway Projects”. They have appealed the State Governments to take up The new lines under Infra Structure Development Projects In their respective States. 
Maharashtra:            Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation 2/3

Karnataka   :             Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprises  2/3

Andhra Pradesh:      50 : 50 sharing

West Bengal    :       Metro Rail – Dolliganj – Dahria     1/3 share

Jarkhand         :       2/3 sharing

Tamil Nadu :            MRTS – Taramani – Velacheri 2/3

                                              GC – MSB – TBM               50:50

                                  GC  -  SA  - COT                 50:50

8.     PPP Public Private Participation:

Pipavav Mundra Port Railway

9.     LIC of India has come forward to invest Rs 150000 Crores in Indian Railways

Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) 

A fund namely ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ (RRSK) has been created in 2017-18 with a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore over a period of five years for critical safety related works. Accordingly, a provision of ₹20,000 crore has been made in Budget Estimates and Revised Estimate, 2017-2018 out of ‘Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh’ to fund essential works for ensuring safety.

The details of works to be executed through Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh (RRSK) have been summarized as under: –

Summary of RRSK works identified
(1)	Civil Engineering Works
	(including Track works, Bridge rehabilitation, Vehicular ultrasound testing system for rail/welds, broken rail detection system, adoption of flash butt welds & weld quality improvement etc)
(2)	Safety works at Level Crossings (includig elimination of LC/ROB/RUB/Subways etc)
(3)	S&T Works (including Train Protection & Warning System, Train Collision Avoidance System, up-gradation of standard of interlocking, replacement of overaged signalling gears by electrical/electronic interlocking etc)
(4)	(including Freight Design & Maintenance, Coach Design & Maintenance, Diesel Locomotive maintenance, Crew Management and Disaster management)
(5)	Electrical Engineering (Replacement of overaged traction distribution assets, conversion of unregulated OHE to regulated OHE, replacement of masts/portals, replacement of transformers, cables,earthing, panels, wiring etc)
(6)	Human Resource Development

The above works of asset replacement are targeted for liquidation in a period of five years. Outlay of the ₹20,000 crore has been allocated in Budget Estimates 2018-19 also.

Safety is accorded the highest priority by Indian Railways and all possible steps are undertaken on a continual basis including upgradation of technology to aid safe running of trains. These include replacement of over-aged assets, elimination of unmanned level crossings, adoption of suitable technologies for upgradation and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signalling and interlocking systems, safety drives, greater emphasis on training of officials and inspections at regular intervals to monitor and educate staff for observance of safe practices.

As a safety culture a well established safety management systems is existing which identifies Safety hazards and unsafe practices in the railway operation so that corrective action can be initiated much before occurrence of a disaster. Instructions have been issued from time to time to inculcate safety habits amongst all railway employees.

This information was given by the Minister of State of Railways Shri Rajen Gohain in