Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said initiatives taken by the government to increase revenue of the Indian Railways may push GDP by two percentage points.Inaugurating FICCI's Smart Railway Conclave, Prabhu said in the last two-and-a-half years, initiatives have been taken to increase revenue, especially non-fare revenue, augment capacity and operational efficiencies to lower costs in a passenger and business friendly manner in the Indian Railways.The Minister said the Railways is working towards improving its finances and operational aspects in a transparent manner, besides providing a better travel experience so that it can make a contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Prabhu said soon after he assumed office, the Railways brought out a white paper, which identified the challenges and helped in creating a strategic plan to address them.Strenuous efforts are now being made to augment the speed of implementation of policies, redressal of customers' grievances in real-time and modernisation of processes and systems with the help of technology, he said.He said while, through the years, demand for railway infrastructure and amenities has increased exponentially, infrastructure had failed to keep pace.