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Overview of Rail Budget 2007-08
Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad announced today that the railways have decided to start production of new design coaches from 2007-08. He said, the newly designed coaches will have significantly higher capacity than the previous coaches. The capacity of sleeper coaches has been increased from 72 to 84, AC Chair Car from 67 to 102, AC 3 Tier from 64 to 81, AC 2 Tier from 46 to 48 and AC 1st from 18 to 22. The rail coaches designed at Kapurthala factory are convenient and comfortable for passengers, he said.
2007-08 ANNOUNCED AS YEAR OF CLEANLINESS
300 MORE STATIONS TO GET MODERN FACILITIES AND FACELIFT
Presenting the Railway Budget for 2007-08 in Lok Sabha today, Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad announced that the year 2007-08 will be observed as ‘Cleanliness Year’ by the Indian Railways. He said, during this year, special campaign will be launched to ensure cleanliness and hygiene at station premises, in passenger trains, railway lines and waiting rooms etc.
He said that last year he had announced that within two years people will observe a perceptible improvement in the get-up and facilities available at all major stations. By March 2007, work will be completed at 225 such stations and the Ministry proposes to provide similar facilities in another 300 stations this year.
ANNUAL PLAN OUTLAY UP BY 32 PER CENT
IEBR TO FUND THREE-FOURTHS OF OUTLAY
DEDICATED FRIEGHT CORRIDOR GETS RS. 1330 CRORE
RS. 1610 CRORE FOR NEW LINES, RS. 2404 FOR GAUGE CONVERSION, RS. 300 FOR ELECTRIFICATION & RS.722 FOR METROPOLITAN TRANSPORT
The Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad has proposed an outlay of Rs. 31,000 crore for the Annual Plan 2007-08. The outlay exceeds plan size for the current year by 32 per cent and would be the largest Annual Plan for the Railways so far. The thrust of the Annual plan would be maintaining the high growth rate through early completion of throughput enhancement works, traffic facilities and works related to network expansion and development of high traffic density routes.
The outlays of the Annual Plans over the last three years have increased by about two and a half times and three-fourths of the Plan would be sourced from Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR). The share of internal resources alone would be 56 per cent. Deployment of internal resources is projected at Rs. 17,323 crore and would be 61 per cent last year. Extra budgetary resources would include Rs. 5000 crore for leasing of rolling stock through IRFC, loan of Rs. 240 crore to be raised by RVNL and investment of Rs. 500 crore under the wagon investment scheme.
The total budgetary support of Rs. 7611 crore includes Rs. 1165 crore for SRSF, Rs. 725 crore from Central Road Fund and Rs. 5721 crore for the remaining projects. The outlay of traffic facilities plan has been increased by 30 per cent to Rs. 800 crore. The proposed outlay for doubling has been increased almost two-fold at Rs. 2000 crore to expedite execution of doubling projects. Besides this Rs. 1358 crore will be spent on projects to be executed by RVNL. The allotment of dedicated freight corridors has been proposed at Rs. 1330 crore.
Outlay for the four other major planheads have been kept at Rs. 5,036 crore. Provision of Rs. 1,610 crore has been made for new lines. Rs. 2,404 crore for gauge convesion, Rs. 300 crore for electrification and Rs. 722 crore for Metropolitan Transport Projects. The outlay for safety related plan heads includes Rs. 3,360 crore for track renewal, Rs. 597 crore for bridge works, Rs. 1,597 crore for signal and telecom works, Rs. 551 crore for construction of road over/under bridges and Rs. 500 crore for manning of unmanned level crossings.
The Railway Ministry has sought additional fund of Rs. 2725 crore from Ministry of Finance for the national projects of Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern Region. These include Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla, Jiribam-Imphal Road (Tupul) and Kumarghat-Agartala new line and Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam gauge conversion projects.
PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY ON HIGH SPEED PASSENGER CORRIDORS
METRE GAUGES TO BE CONVERTED TO BROAD GAUGES TO OPTIMISE REVENUE
SUBURBAN SERVICES TO BE IMPROVED AND MODERNISED
STATES WILLING TO SHARE 50 PER CENT COST TO GET PRIORITY
Presenting the Railway Budget in Lok Sabha today, Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad announced proposal to conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high speed passenger corridors. He said, as desired by Hon’ble Prime Minister, these high speed passenger corridors would be equipped with state of art signaling and train control systems for running high speed trains at a speed of 300 to 350 kms per hour. Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern regions will have one each of these corridors, where trains will cover distances of up to 600 kms in two to three hours. All alternatives including public private partnership would be considered for implementation of these corridors.
Efforts would be made to convert majority of metre gauge lines to broad gauge lines during the 11th Plan Period. Shri Lalu pointed out that railways was losing thousands of crores of rupees annually as these narrow gauges are cut off from the main network and give less than one per cent of freight traffic whereas they constitute 20 per cent of the total network. Gauge conversion will facilitate integrating the remote and far-flung areas of the country with the national mainstream. Projects where State Governments contribute 50 per cent of the total cost would be given priority in sanction and implementation.
Capacity enhancement in the suburban services of Mumbai would be undertaken during the 11th Plan period. MUTP-Phase I would be completed while work on Rs. 5000 crore MUTP-Phase II project would be started. Expected to enhance capacity by 56 per cent the project would be taken up through joint participation of railways, State Governments and multilateral funding institutions. Ongoing works on suburban services in Kolkata and Chennai will also be completed on priority basis. Air conditioned class services in suburban trains in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and escalators at major stations would also be set up during 11th Plan Period.
RAILWAY RESERVATION AT E-SEVA OF STATE GOVERNMENTS, POST OFFICES, PETROL PUMPS AND ATMS OF BANKS
E-TICKET CHARGE FOR SLEEPER/AC SLASHED
TRAIN ENQUIRY CALL CENTRES INTRODUCED
HAND HELD COMPUTER TERMINALS FOR TTES
8000 UTS COUNTERS AND 6000 AUTOMATIC TICKET VENDING MACHINES FOR UNRESERVED TRAVEL
To expand the reach of reserved railway ticketing in all parts of the country, e-tickets will be issued through e-seva of State Governments, Post Offices, petrol pumps and ATMs of Banks. In view of the growing popularity of the scheme and in order to further encourage e-ticket usage, the Railway Ministry has decided to reduce the per e-ticket charge of sleeper class and AC classes from Rs. 25 to Rs. 15 and Rs. 40 to Rs. 20 respectively. PRS facility is being made available at all Group ‘D’ stations and some Group ‘E’ stations through PRS counters or PRS-cum UTS counters over the next two years. PRS counters will also be provided in premises of Post Offices and Defence organizations to be operated by them.
Train enquiry call centers will start functioning in all four regions of the country from June to September 2007. By dialing the telephone number 139, passengers will be able to obtain information about arrival and departure of trains, seat availability etc. at local call rates from any part of the country. These call centers will have international level facilities like SMS alert. In future call centres will also provide several services like Railway Ticketing, Taxi Booking, Hotel Booking etc.
Presenting the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha, today Shri Lalu said a number of new initiatives are being taken to facilitate reserved travel. He said, hand held computer terminals will be provided to TTEs in reserved coaches to improve occupancy. The TTE will feed in the current vacancy position, coach wise and berth wise in the hand held terminals which will be directly linked to PRS system to enable allotment of vacant berths to wait listed passengers at ensuing stations. The system will be introduced as pilot project on four pairs of trains next year. These would include three Shatabdi Express Trains running between New Delhi-Amritsar, New Delhi-Dehradun and New Delhi-Ajmer and Golden Temple Express.
The number of computerized UTS counters will be increased to 8000 over the next two years. 6000 automatic ticket vending machines will also be installed in major cities and connected with UTS terminals during the same period. Tickets would also be made available at a press of a button by using smart cards for currency coins. Railway also proposes to undertake a pilot project of issuing tickets through multi purpose smart cards. Under this scheme, customers will have facility to obtain MST as well as daily ticket on the same card. The card would be re-chargeable at different places and readable on touch by the hand held terminals of TTEs.
NEW INITIATIVES AIMED AT MAKING UNRESERVED TRAVEL COMFORTABLE
50 PER CENT CONCESSION TO STUDENTS APPEARING IN UPSC/SSC EXAMS
EARMARKED COACHES FOR VENDORS IN PASSENGER TRAINS
Union Minister for Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad today announced a number of measures aimed at improving travel in unreserved second class. Recognizing paucity of unreserved second-class coaches, he said all new trains will have six unreserved second class coaches instead of four at present. Presenting the Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha, today Shri Lalu said that efforts would be made to increase the number of unreserved second-class coaches in the existing trains wherever possible. Fully air conditioned AC and Jan Shatabdi trains would however be exempted.
All Mail and Express trains will have specially designed coaches for physically disabled passengers in two years time. 1250 such coaches, already manufactured will have wider doors and cushioned seats and more aisle passage and specially designed toilets for passengers on wheel chairs. Production of wooden seats is being stopped from next year and all unreserved second-class coaches will have cushioned seats.
Senior citizens and ladies face considerable inconvenience when they are allotted upper or middle berths. Adequate number of lower berths will be provided in AC and Sleeper classes for senior citizens and women above the age of 45 traveling alone.
Vendor coaches will be provided on sections where transportation of milk, fruit and vegetables through passenger trains is common. The initiative is aimed at ensuring safe travel to vendors who at present carry their milk cans and baskets hanging from the windows.
The Railway Ministry has also proposed to give 50 per cent concession to students appearing in the main written examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission and Central Staff Selection Commission. Last year, the Ministry had announced concessions for unemployed youths appearing for interviews for jobs in Central and State Government exams.
RAILWAYS JOINT VENTURE WITH KERALA GOVERNMENT TO MANUFACTURE PASSENGER COACHES
The Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad has announced that a Joint Venture Company would be set up with the Steel Industries Kerala Limited, Aleppey, a public sector undertaking of Government of Kerala to manufacture the passenger coaches.
Presenting the Budget proposals for the year 2007-08, Shri Prasad told the Lok Sabha that in view of rapidly growing passenger services, there would be a requirement of additional passenger coaches in future. He said that presently the Railways have a limited capacity to manufacture ICF design fabricated bogies for passenger coaches and the proposed joint venture company with Kerala PSU would help meet the shortfall.
NO INCREASE IN PASSENGER FARES
The Union Minister for Railways announced that there would be no increase in passenger fares during the year 2007-08 for any class of travel. A Variable Fare Scheme has been proposed to be introduced under Dynamic Pricing Policy. Discounts in fares at the rates indicated below shall be given in various classes of travel.
| Class | Busy Season | Lean Season |
| AC First | 3% | 6% |
| AC 2-Tier | 2% | 4% |
| AC-3 Tier (81 berths) | 4% | 8% |
| AC-3 Tier (64 berths) | Nil | Nil |
| AC CC (102 seats) | 4% | 8% |
| New Sleeper Coaches (84 berths) | 4% | 4% |
| Sleeper Class (72 berths) | Nil | Nil |
In Popular trains, class-wise discounts indicated above for Busy Season shall be applicable through out the year. The list of popular trains shall be notified separately.
Supplementary charges for Superfast Trains for Second Class shall be reduced from Rs. 10 to Rs. 8.
It has been proposed to introduce Tourist Tickets for any station to any station in Mumbai Suburban area as a pilot project. The fares for Second Calls Tourist Tickets shall be as under: -
| 1 Day | Rs. 40.00 |
| 3 Day | Rs. 75.00 |
| 5 Day | Rs. 90.00 |
Daily tickets for Non-suburban Second Class Ordinary trains and Non-superfast Mail/Express trains shall be reduced by Re. 1.00 per passenger.
FREQUENCIES OF 14 TRAINS TO BE INCREASED
The frequency of the following trains will be increased during this year. This was announced by the Union Railway Minister Shri Lalu Prasad during his Budget speech in the Parliament.
- 9311/9312 Indore-Pune Express (from 2 days in a week to 3 days in a week)
- 1561/1562 Miraj-Belgaum Passenger (from 6 days in a week to daily)
- 2149/2150 Pune-Patna Express (from 2 days in a week to 4 days in a week)
- 2843/2844 Puri-Ahmedabad Express (from 3 days in a week to 4 days in a week)
- 2345/2346 Howrah-Guwahati Saraighat Express (from 5 days in a week to daily)
- 1563/1564 Miraj-Belgaum Passenger (from 6 days in a week to daily)
- 2309/2310 New Delhi-Patna Rajdhani Express (from 2 days in a week to daily)
- 6603/6604 Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore Express (from 3 days in a week to daily)
- 2835/2836 Hatia-Yesvantpur Express (from weekly to 2 days)
- 209/210 Machilipatnam-Tirupati Passenger (from 3 days to daily)
- 6595/6596 Patna-Bangalore Express (from 2 days in a week to 6 days in a week)
- 2419/2420 New Delhi-Lucknow Gomti Express (from 6 days in a week to daily)
- 6527/6528 Yesvantpur-Kannur Express (from weekly to 3 days in a week)
- 6315/6316 Bangalore-Kochuvelli Express (from weekly to 3 days in a week)
The Union Railway Minister, Shri Lalu Prasad announced in his Budget speech, presented in Lok Sabha today, that the run of the following existing trains will be extended :-
- 4517/4518 Allahabad-Ambala Cantt. Unchahar Express upto Chandigarh
- 207/208 Tirupati-Guntakal Passenger upto Hubli
- 2315/2316 Sealdah-Ajmer Ananya Express upto Udaipur
- 2105/2106 Mumbai-Nagpur Vidarbha Express upto Gondia
- 1103/1104 Agra Cantt.-Nizamuddin Intercity Express upto New Delhi
- 9165/9166 Ahmedabad-Faizabad Sabarmati Express upto Varanasi
- 4649/4650 Amritsar-Darbhanga Saryu Yamuna Express upto Jai Nagar (After Gauge Conversion)
- 2705/2706 Secunderabad-Vijayawada Express upto Guntur
- Shikohabad-Farrukhabad Passenger upto Kasganj (After Gauge Conversion)
- 3185/3186 Sealdah-Darbhanga Gangasagar Express upto Jai Nagar (After Gauge Conversion)
- 364 Kottayam-Thiruvananthapuram Passenger upto Nagarcoil
- 571/572 Manduadih-Mau Passenger upto Azamgarh
- 209/210 Howrah-Darbhanga Passenger upto Jai Nagar (After Gauge Conversion)
- 5037/5038 Kanpur-Farrukhabad Express upto Kasganj (After Gauge Conversion)
- 6509/6510 Ajmer-Bangalore Express upto Mysore
- 4673/4674 Amritsar-Darbhanga Shaheed Express upto Jai Nagar (After Gauge Conversion)
- 531A/532A Parli-Latur Passenger upto Osmanabad (After Gauge Conversion)
- 2413/2414 Jammu Tawi-Jaipur Express upto Ajmer
- 5107/5108 Lucknow-Kanpur Utsarg Express upto Kanpur Anwarganj
- 469/470 Lucknow-Farrukhabad Passenger upto Kasganj (After Gauge Conversion)
- 5309/5310 Aishbagh-Bareilly Rohilkhand Express upto Kasganj
- 2465/2466 Jodhpur-Sawai Madhopur Express upto Indore
- Gaya-Kiul Passenger upto Jhajha (1 pair)
