Against huge requirement of resources for expansion and modernisation, Railways’ revenue earning system does not leave much surplus for investment and modernisation in Railways. Railways’ internal resource generation for plan investment in 2013-14 and 2014-15 was ` 11,668 crore and Rs. 15,440 crore respectively.

Investment on expansion and modernisation of Railways is financed from multiple sources i.e. Gross Budgetary Support from the Ministry of Finance, Internal Resources generated by Railways and Extra Budgetary Resources like market borrowings and Public Private Partnerships etc.

Efforts towards enhancing internal resource generation in Railways is a continuous endeavour. Towards this end, Railways have targeted progressively higher revenue through an inter-mix of capacity augmentation, pricing adjustments and expenditure control such as:

• Targeting progressively higher volume of passenger and freight traffic;

• Periodic rationalisation of both freight and passenger tariffs and fares;

• Periodic adjustments of various charges incidental to passenger and freight;

• Exploration of alternate sources of revenue like commercial exploitation of surplus Railway land, advertisement on Railway premises/assets etc;

• Constant endeavour by Railways to effect economy in expenditure.

• Austerity and economy measures in areas such as hospitality, publicity, advertisements, inaugural ceremonies, seminars and workshops, contingent office expenses etc.

• Implementation of guidelines on expenditure control & management circulated by the Ministry of Finance on the Railways also.

• Rigorous monitoring of expenditure with reference to the monthly budget proportions.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 11.12.2015.