The Minister of Railways, while presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17, has proposed to transform Indian Railways through seven Mission activities – AVATARAN. These missions are:
1. Mission 25 Tonne: It aims to increase revenue by augmenting carrying capacity. To achieve this 10-20% freight loading will be done through 25-tonne axle-load wagons in 2016-17 and target movement of 70% of freight traffic on high axle load wagons by 2019-20.
2. Mission Zero Accident: It comprises two sub missions-
3. Mission PACE (Procurement and Consumption Efficiency): This mission aims to improve procurement and consumption practices to improve the quality of goods and services.
4. Mission Raftaar: It targets doubling of average speeds of freights trains and increasing the average speed of superfast mail/express trains by 25 kmph in the next 5 years.
5. Mission Hundred: This mission will commission at least a hundred sidings in the next 2 years. The current siding/ Private Freight Terminal (PFT) policy would be revised to elicit greater private participation. An online portal will be operated for accepting and processing all new applications, along with decentralization of powers.
6. Mission beyond book-keeping: It will establish an accounting system where outcomes can be tracked to inputs.
7. Mission Capacity Utilization: It proposes to prepare a blueprint for making full use of the huge new capacity that will be created through two Dedicated Freight Corridors between Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Kolkata which were scheduled to be commissioned by 2019.
