Rail Budget 2015: Key highlights
Here’s a recap of Suresh Prabhu’s plan for the Indian Railways
New Delhi: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu presented the railway budget for 2015-16 in Parliament on Thursday. Here are the key highlights of his budget speech:
GOAL
-- Prabhu says railways need to undergo a transformation over the next five years
-- Four major goals been set up to transform railways:
a) To deliver a sustained and measurable improvement in customer experience
b) To make railways a safer means of travel
c) To expand capacity substantially and modernize infrastructure
d) Financial sustainability
-- Priority to improve capacity on high density network in next five years
-- Special focus on cleanliness campaign; Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat, new department for cleanliness, to be set up
FARES
-- No increase in passenger fares
-- Freight rates for urea raised by 10%, iron and steel by 0.8%, kerosene and cooking gas by 0.8%, coal by 6.3% and cement by 2.7%
FINANCES
-- Plan budget goes up 52% to Rs1.1 trillion for FY16
-- Prabhu envisages investment of Rs8.5 trillion for railways in the next five years
-- Railways to raise funds from pension, institutional and multilateral agencies
-- To set up an infrastructure fund; holding company to raise long-term debt
-- MPs requested to use part of their MPLAD funds to improve passenger amenities
PASSENGER AMENITIES
-- Passengers can now book tickets 120 days in advance instead of 60 days earlier
-- Railways aims to move towards paperless ticketing
-- ‘Operation 5 minutes’ being launched so that passengers can buy railway tickets within five minutes
-- SMS updates to be sent to inform passengers about any change in time of arrival and departure of trains
-- Open wi-fi to be available at 400 railway stations
-- Mobile charging units to be installed in general class coaches
-- CCTVs to be installed in select trains and suburban trains for women safety
-- Passengers will be able to order food through IRCTC website while booking tickets
-- More water-vending machines to be set up at stations for cleaner water at lower prices
-- 138 to be a nationwide 24x7 helpline number for railway-related queries; 182 to be a toll-free number for security-related issues
-- On-board entertainment in Shatabdis to be introduced
-- NID approached to design user-friendly ladders for climbing upper berths
SAFETY
-- 5-year corporate safety plan to be introduced to reduce accidents, with special focus on unmanned crossings
-- The corporate safety plan to be ready in three months to identify annual quantifiable targets
-- Rs6,750 crore allocated for eliminating 3,438 level crossings; 970 road-underbridge and road-overbridge to be constructed
INFRASTRUCTURE
-- 77 projects worth Rs96,182 crore to expand capacity
-- Four dedicated freight corridors to be completed this year; 6,608km of track to be electrified
-- Track capacity to be increased by 10% to 1.38 lakh km
-- Speed on nine corridors to be increased from 110-130 kmph to 160-200 kmph
-- Wagon-making scheme to be reviewed to make it easier for private investment
-- Prabhu says railways stations need to be transformed, for which investments are needed
-- Station redevelopment policy to be revamped and processes simplified by inviting open bids
-- Development of 10 satellite railway terminals in major cities with twin purpose of decongesting the city and providing service to suburban passengers
-- Joint ventures to be set up with states for focused project development, resource mobilization, land acquisition, project implementation and monitoring of critical rail projects
-- PPP cell to be revamped to make it more result-oriented
-- All railways projects to be moved to EPC model
-- Transport Logistics Corporation of India (Transloc) to be set up for developing common user facilities with handling and value-added services to provide end-to-end logistics solution at select railway terminals through public-private partnerships.
-- Prabhu says feasibility report of high-speed train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad expected by mid-2015
-- North-East connectivity to be improved, J&K connectivity also in focus
TOURISM
-- Prabhu says will promote Gandhi circuit to celebrate 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa
-- IRCTC will work on Kisan Yatra, a special travel scheme for farmers for farming and marketing technique centres
-- Incredible Rail for Incredible India to be launched
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