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
