By: Satyam Vashishtha

Railway minister Suresh Prabhu said on Thursday that the core objective of his budget is to make the railways an engine of employment generation and economic growth across India.

“These are challenging times but we are set for a transformational journey for Indian Railways,” Prabhu said while presenting the Rail Budget 2106 in the Lok Sabha.
“This is not my budget but this is a budget that reflects the aspirations of families in India,” the minister added.

Here are highlights of today’s budget:

* Expect saving of Rs 8,720 this year
* Operating ratio at 92% FY17 as against 90% in current year
* Traffic revenue target at Rs Rs 1.85 lakh crore
* Capital plan of Rs 1.21 lakh crore
* Expect revenue growth of over 10% this year
* Rs 8,720 crore saving in fuel cost like power
* Commission 2,800 km of new tracks in next year, almost 30% higher than last year
* Rs 8.5 lakh crore to be spent over 5 years for modernization of railway infrastructure
* Generate Rs 9 crore man days in FY17-18, Rs 14 crore man-days in FY18-19
* Railway electrification increased by 50%; 2,000 km route to be electrified next fiscal
* Completely paperless contract system in 2016-17
* WiFi in 100 stations this year and 400 other stations next year
* Railways to get Rs 40,000 crore budgetary support from the government
* Rs 30,000 crore is the loss on subsidizing passenger fares
* 20% less accidents this year
* To have CCTV surveillance at all stations, 300 major stations covered this year
* Enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system – from 2000 tickets a minute to 7200 a minute (to support 120,000 concurrent users)

* 44 new projects valued at Rs 92,714 crore to be implemented this year
* 2 locomotive factories at the cost of Rs 40,000 crore to be set up
* 17 states agree to form JVs with Indian Railways for construction of rail-over-bridges
* 124 MPs have committed to contribute from MPLADS for passenger amenities
* 400 stations to be re-developed through PPP
* Overnight double-Decker train Uday Express to be introduced on busiest routes, carrying capacity to be increased 40% more
* Lower berth quota for senior citizens to be increased by 50%
* Will introduce sub-quota of 33% for women in each of the reserved categories in catering
* Three direct services, fully air-conditioned Humsafer, to travel at 130km per hour
* To introduce 20,000 screen rail display network for passing info to passengers and huge advertising potential
* Aim to generate 10-20% of revenues from non-tariff sources over next 5 years by monetizing assets
* Models to determine revenue potential of at least 20 stations in next 3 months
* 17,000 additional bio-toilets to be provided by the end of current fiscal
* 2,800km of broad gauge track conversion envisaged
* 7km of broad gauge lines to be commissioned every day during 2016-17
* Hope to commission 19km of new broad gauge track every day by 2018-19
* Direct procurement of diesel to help save Rs 1,500 crore in 2016-17
* Rs 50 crore to be provided for startups by railway employees
* LIC to fund Rs 1.5 lakh crore over five years on favorable terms

It looks good that govt. is concentrating more on improvement of railways services.