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Important features of the railway Budget 2015

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Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday (26 th of Feb ) presenting the NM govt first
Full year railway budget left passenger fares untouched and also steered clear of
announcing any new trains. Instead he launched a slew of measures aimed at making
train travel easier, more comfortable and safer.
The Railway bidget will be a aprt of the several campaigns initiated by Narendra Modi
like Swatchh bharat, Make in India and Digital India. It is not a document in isolation.
1. Cleanliness: Make Swatch rail Force behind the Swatch Bharat initiative. The
railway minister announced the creation of a separate department for cleanliness.
Professional agencies would be engaged and adequate training would be provided to
the railway staff; setting up waste-to-energy conversion plans. Build new toilets
covering 650 additional stations and replacing existing toilets with 17, 388 bio toilets.
Bring out design for vacuum toilets in the upcoming 6 months; Extend built-in dustbins
for to non-AC coaches.
2. Be Linen: The National Institute of Fashion technology or NIFt will design bed linen
for railways. Online booking of disposable bed rolls will be made available soon.
3. Helplines: The government has set up two 24*7 helplines. Commuters would have
to dial toll free numbers 138 for travel related queries and 182 for security related
queries. Mobile applications to redress railway related complaints to be developed
soon.
4. Ticketing: You will be issued an unreserved ticket quickly. The minister announced
Operation Five Minutes for unreserved ticketing. This would be achieved by
providing multiple options for ticketing like hot buttons, coin vending machines,
single destination teller, multi-lingual portal, unreserved tickets on smart
phones among other things. Also concessional e-tickets for differently abled persons,
unreserved tickets for smartphones; automatic ticket vending machines with smart
cards and currency options. Integrated ticketing system on the lines of railway cum
road tickets.
5. Surveillance Cameras: For the safety of women commuters, surveillance cameras
would be installed on select routes and ladies compartments of suburban railway lines
6. Mobile phone charging: All general class compartments will have mobile phone
charging points. The number of such points would increase in sleeper class too.
7. Station Facilities: 200 more stations added to ADARSH STATION Scheme. Wi-Fi
zones to be extended to more stations, facility of self-operated lockers to be made
available at stations, online booking of wheel chair on payment basis for senior
citizens, patients and differently abled passengers would be made possible through
ITCTC for select stations.
8. Increasing Train Speed: Speed of 9 railway corridors to be increased from the
existing 130 kmph to 160 and 200 kmph respectively so that inter-metro journeys like
Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai can be completed overnight.
9. Catering: e-catering in 108 trains to be introduced from January 2016. Ordering
food through IRCTC website at the time of booking the tickets; setting up base kitchen
in the specific divisions to be run by reputed agencies for serving quality food;
expansion of water vending machines in selected stations are among the other
facilities declared.
10. Comfortable Travel: NID approached to design user friendly ladders to climb the
upper berths; more reservation for senior citizens to the lower berths; TTEs to be
instructed to help senior citizens, pregnant women, and differently abled persons.
Middle bay coaches to be reserved for women and senior citizens; Provision of Rs 120
crore for lifts and escalators (76% higher); Newly manufactured coaches to be Brailley

enabled; building wider entrances for differently abled persons; allocation for
passenger amenities up by 67%.
11. Financing cell in the railway Board: It will seek advices from experts in the
railways field and helps in mobilising the resources to meet the budgetary
requirements.
12. Foreign Rail Technology Cooperation Scheme: The Scheme aims to achieve
the higher quality service for the nation. This is being launched because Technology
intensive and complex projects like speed raising and station redevelopment require lot
of handholding by a specialized agency in terms of preparatory work, exploring
technology options and managing bid processes.
13. Gandhi Circuit: It has been decided to promote tourism in the country through
Gandhi Circuit. Indian Railways will join this effort through Incredible Rail for Incredible
India. The Gandhi circuit will be set up by the Indian Railways Catering and Tourism
Corporation (IRCTC) to mark the 100 years of the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South
Africa to India.
14. Kisan Yatra: It is a special travel scheme for farmers to visit farming and
marketing information centres.
Apart from the above, there are other major highlights as well. They are discussed as
follows:
Highlights from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's Speech:
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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
User friendly ladders for upper berths
SMS alert for arrival and depart
To revamp station redevelopment policy completely
SMS alerts for arrival and departure of trains
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 8.5 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 Ahmedabad 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
Revamp of Railway staff quarters and RPF Barracks
Rs.2000 cr for Coastal Connectivity Program; Rs.2500 cr through BOT/Annuity
route. 1000 MW Solar plant; 100DEMUs to dual fuel.
Setting up Kayakalp to help in Technology Up gradation: It is an innovation
council proposed to be setup. It will be set up for the purpose of business reengineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in Railways.
Decentralize, deregulate and delegate to make freight business simpler
1,00,011 Cr. Planning Budget in 2015-16
Corporate safety Plans, ISRO to be involved; 3438 level Xings to be eliminated,
Rly expense increased by 2600%
MUTP-III project for Mumbai. (Mumbai urban Transport Project)
Malviya Chair at IIT BHU for Railway technology excellence: Varanasi This
chair will help in the development of new materials used in all assets of the
Railways
Train Protection Warning Systems and Anti colliding system to be developed by
RDSO
Automatic Freight Scheme to be launched in Pan India.
8.5 lakh crore rupees to be invested in the railways in the next 5 years
Operating ratio proposed at 88.5%. Best ever in 9 years.
Increase track length by 20 per cent and passenger carrying capacity from 21 to
30 million.
Facility of self operated lockers at stations

Safety Apps: (Source: The Hindu Dated: 27/02/2015)


1. Mobile App being developed to redress complains. Facility to start from march 1
in the Northern Railway
2. Radio Based Signaling: Design project to be taken up wih IIT Kanpur for alerts
at unmanned level crossing
3. Priority to Women: Nirbhaya Fund to be used for augmenting the security of
women passengers.
4. For a safe Ride:
(a) Five year safety plan to be framed by June 2015;
(b) Recommendations of the Kakodkar Safety Committee: to be examined by
April

, Surveillance cameras: In select mainline coaches and womens coaches


without intruding into privacy
(d) Geo spatial technology: to be used to provide audio visual warning to the
road users at unmanned level crossings
(e ) Train collision Avoidance Systems: to be installed in select routes.
**West Bengal provisions from the railway Budget:
Kolkata metro budget hiked by Rs 40 crore: this was Rs. 540 crore last year, and
has been revised to Rs. 580 crore in the Railway Budget 2015 (both for the existing
metro services and the pending metro projects in Bengal)
No updates or allocation for the East West Metro project is available yet as this is still
pending under the Ministry of urban Development.
Concerns:
1. Source for the expenditure declared to be rs 8.56 crore over the next five years:
Problem is there is not fixed lines as from where the expenditure is met up with.
Td various here is not enough surplus to plough back into investments. Mr
Prabhu has acknowledged the problem and also suggested various sources to
raise finances, like borrowing from multilateral institutions like WB and pension
funds whose investment horizons would match the long term plans of the
railways. They would set up a holding company or a joint venture with existing
non-banking financial companies of public sector enterprises such as the Indian
Railway Finance Corporation.
2. Electrification of 6608 rout kilometers in 2015-16 compared to 462 kms
sanctioned in 2014-15 and for that matter the plan to invest Rs. 96,182 crore in
doubling/tripling or quadrupling and electrifying 9400 kms of tracks sounds
impressive but execution is the key to it.
3. We also have seen such ambitious plans in the past faltering at the execution
stage.
4. The projected improvement in the execution ratio from 91.8% to 88.5 % in the
coming one also sounds impressive but the fine print on expenditure needs to be
watched as the ration is easy to message. N
5. Overall this railway Budget is a break from the past in taking a long term view
about the development of railways but is definitely financially independent and
operationally efficient.
6. He has five years to reach his destination.
7. The increased freight fares can also heighten cement production cost, along with
power tariff. Coal and iron n Steel will also be effected with the change.
Way Forward: Source: The Hindu, Editorial
1. A Railway Budget is essentially an opportunity for any government to push
forward the GDP growth by at least 2.5% but according to man y the Modi
government in its second budget has lost this opportunity again.
2. The huge expectation not only in Indi abut also wide across the world for a
completely new orientation and path breaking budget has been belied.
3. However, earnings from passengers have risen in the past year on the back of a
14 per cent increase in fares announced in June 2014.

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