Thursday, February 26, 2015

Railway Budget 2015

Highlights of the Rail Budget as presented by our Honorable Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu:
  • No increase in passenger fares
  • SMS alert to be introduced for train timings
  • To introduce air-conditioned coaches for suburban trains
  • Wi-fi to be available at 400 railway stations
  • To revamp station redevelopment policy completely
  • To have bidding system for redevelopment of stations
  • To develop 10 satellite railway stations this year
  • On-board entertainment facility could be extended on Shatabdi trains
  • Mobile charging stations will be introduced general class coaches
  • Wagon-making scheme to be reviewed to make it easier for private investment
  • To improve cleanliness & design of bed linen
  • All India 24x7 grievances helpline 138 to start soon
  • 7,000 more toilets to be replaced by Bio-Toilets, New toilets at 650 stations, more vacuum toilets
  • Passenger travelling unreserved can procure a ticket within 5 minutes
  • Mobile application to address complaints of people is also being developed
  • Hand-held devices for ticket checkers for moving towards paperless ticketing
  • Centrally managed railway display network in over 2000 stations in next 2 years
  • We are committed to provide rail connectivity to North Eastern states
  • CCTVs to be introduced in select trains and suburban trains for women safety
  • Train Protection Warning System, Train Collision Avoidance System
  • Tickets can be booked 120 days in advance instead of 60 days
  • Plan expenditure to go up to a record Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2015-16 from Rs 66,000 crore in the previous year
  • Railways plans to spend over Rs 8 lakh crore over five years
  • We will introduce train sets saving 20% of journey time, similar to bullet trains in design, and that can run on existing tracks
  • Feasibility report of high speed train between Mumbai and Ahmadabad expected by mid-2015
  • The speed passenger trains across nine corridors will be increased to 160-200 km from 110 km
  • Railways to go through transformation in five years; to increase track capacity by 10 per cent to 1.38 lakh km
  • To monetize assets rather than sell them
  • To set up full-fledged Railway University in FY16
  • Rs.2000 crore for Coastal Connectivity Program; Rs.2500 crore through BOT/Annuity route
  • 6608 kms of track to be electrified
  • Projects worth Rs 96,182 crore to expand capacity of 9,420 km rail lines
  • Drawing up comprehensive policy to tap latent advertising potential

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