Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is presenting his first Rail Budget. Sparing the passengers of a fare hike, the chartered accountant-turned politician proposed a big hike in outlay for passenger amenities. He outlined a plan to invest over Rs 8 lakh crore over 5 years.
Highlights of Mr Prabhu's Speech
- No increase in passenger fares
- Outlay for passenger amenities increased by 67%
- We will introduce train sets saving 20% of journey time, similar to bullet trains in design, and that can run on existing tracks
- SMS alert to be introduced for train timings
- E-catering introduced in 108 trains, can order on IRCTC website
- To expand water vending machines on more stations
- On-board entertainment facility could be extended on Shatabdi trains
- Mobile charging stations will be introduced general class coaches
- More general class coaches will be added to select trains for benefit of the common man
- Railways plans to spend over Rs 8 lakh crore over five years
- Pension funds, multi-lateral banks have evinced interest in Railways
- Proposed the best operating ratio in nine years, of 88.5 per cent for 2015-16
- Railways to go through transformation in five years; to increase track capacity by 10 per cent to 1.38 lakh km
- 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 vaccum toilets
- Passenger travelling unreserved can procure a ticket within 5 minutes
- Mobile application to address complaints of people is also being developed
- Introduction of integrated ticketing will be done
- Hand-held devices for ticket checkers for moving towards paperless ticketing
- Centrally managed railway display network in over 2000 stations in next 2 years
- Railways will play a big role in socio-economic development of the country
- Railways carry a big burden of expectations
- Investments in railways will have multiplier effect
- Railways facilities have not improved significantly over last few years
- The cycle of under-investment should end
- Railways has to regain in share in freight traffic
- Railways aims to deliver a sustainable improvement in customer experience and make rail a safer means of travel
- Objective is to make Railways self-sustainable
- Rail-cum-road ticket to be extended to many stations
Source: www.profit.ndtv.com
