Highlights of Railway Budget 2014

Union minister Sadananda Gowda has presented his first Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Here are the highlights from the Railway budget 2014:

* Indian railways to become the largest freight carrier in the world.

* Social obligation of Railways in 2013-14 was Rs 20,000 crore.

* Gross traffic receipts in 2013-14 was Rs 12,35,558 crore; operating ratio was 94 per cent.

* Fare revision will bring in Rs.8,000 crore; need another Rs.9,000 crore for golden quadrilateral project.

* Proposals to set up Food Courts at major stations.

* With 12,500 trains, railways move 23 million passengers every day; equivalent to moving Australia’s population.

* Separate housekeeping wing at 50 major stations.

* CCTV to monitor cleanliness activities.

* Mechanized laundry will be introduced.

* Dedicated freight corridor on Eastern and Western corridors.

* 5400 unmanned level crossing removed.

* Tourist trains to be introduced to link all major places of tourist interests across the country.

* 4,000 women constables to be recruited to ensure safety of women. 17,000 RPF constables to provide safety to passengers.

* Setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical study.

* Ultrasonic system to detect problem in track.

* Proposal to start Bullet trains in Mumbai—Ahmedabad route and setting up of a Diamond Quadrilateral network of high-speed rail connecting major metros and growth centres. A sum of Rs. 100 crore has been provided for initiating the project.

* Increasing the speed of trains to 160 to 200 kms per hour on nine select sectors to reduce travel times.

* E-ticketing system to be improved. Future e-ticketing to support 7200 tickets per minute & to allow 120,000 simultaneous users. Currently it supports 2000 tickets per minute.

* Wifi in A1 and A category stations and in select trains.

* Online booking facility extended for buying platform tickets and unreserved tickets

* GIS mapping and digitization of Railway Land. Extension of logistics support to various e-Commerce Companies.

* Bulk of future projects will be financed through PPP mode.

* Facilitate transport of milk through rail. Special milk transportation trains in association with Amul and National Dairy Association Board.

* Mumbai local to get 860 new, state-of-the art coaches. 64 new EMUs to be introduced.

* Train connectivity to Char Dham.

* Paperless office of Indian railways in 5 years. Digital reservation charts at stations.

* Ready-to-eat meals to be introduced in phased manners.

* 5 Jansadharan , 5 Premium AC trains and 27 Express trains to be introduced.

Check out the full list of New Trains allotted in this budget (follow the link)

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