Highlights of 2015 Railway budget

Highlights from Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu's Speech:

●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

●To revamp station redevelopment policy completely

●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 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

Source : Mission IAS facebook group.

Full text of Railway Budget can be found here:

Railway-Budget.pdf