Rail Budget 2015 Highlights, Rail Budget 2015 Highlights ‘No Increase in Passenger Fares’, Rail Budget 2015 Highlights, Latest : Rail Budget 2015 Highlights ‘No Increase in Passenger Fares’, Indian rail way budget highlights 2015-16.
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu presented the railway budget for 2015- 2016 in Parliament on Thursday. Here are the key highlights of his India Railway Budget:
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.
