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Railway Budget: What You Need to Know

  • The following are the highlights of the railway budget for 2012-13 presented in Parliament on Wednesday by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi:

  • Improvement of passenger amenities at a cost of Rs1,112 crore; regional cuisines to be introduced.

  • World Bank funding of Rs6,500 crore firmed up for dedicated freight corridors; land acquired for 3,300km; first contracts to be handed out during 2012-13

  • * Standard of hygiene needs to be improved substantially; all out efforts will be made on this in the next six months; duty bound to provide high standard of services; special housekeeping body to be set up for stations and trains.

  • *Corrosion from night soil being discharged from toilets on tracks costs Rs350 crore annually; green toilets to be installed in 2,500 coaches in the next one year.

  • * Two thousand one hundred specially designed coaches manufactured to meet needs of the differently abled; aim to provide one such coach in each express train.

  • * Electrification to be undertaken over 6,500km at an allocation of Rs8,000 crore during 12th Plan.

  • * Conversion from DC to AC power supply completed in Western Railway corridor of Mumbai suburban rail system; conversion of Central Railway corridor to be completed in 2012-13.

  • * Elevated corridor from Churchgate to Virar in Mumbai being firmed up.

  • * Government should consider dividend payback to railways.

  • * Thirty-one projects over 5,000km being implemented with state govenments sharing costs.

  • * Capacity augmentation to get Rs4,410 crore during 2012-13.

  • * Eighty-five new line projects to be taken up during 2012-13.

  • * One hundred and fourteen new line surveys to be undertaken during 2012-13.

  • * New line projects to get Rs6,870 crore in 2012-13.

  • * Gauge conversion to be undertaken over 800km with an allocation of Rs1,950 crore.

  • * Focus during next five years on five areas: tracks, bridges, signalling, rolling stock and stations.

  • * Signalling to be improved over 19,000km.

  • * Investment of Rs1.70 lakh crore on rolling stock in next five years.

  • * Attempt to increase train speeds to 160 kmph; journey time from New Delhi to Kolkata can be brought down to 14 hours from 17 hours.

  • * Improvements to railway stations can provide employment to 50,000 people.

  • * Outlay of Rs60,100 crore during 2012-13, the highest ever.

  • * Railways will require Rs14 lakh crore in the next 10 years for modernisation.

  • * Aim to bring down operating ratio from 90% to 84.9% in 2012-13 and to 72% by 2016-17.

  • * Time has come for formulating national policy for railways on the lines of that for defence and external affairs.

  • * Railways should grow at 10% annually for sustained GDP growth.

  • * Railways to invest Rs7.35 lakh crore during 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), a quantum jump from the Rs1.92 lakh crore invested in previous plan period.

  • * Railways must attract 10% of the Rs20 lakh crore government expects to spend on infrastructure during 12th Plan.

  • * Railways expect gross budgetary support of Rs2.5 lakh crore during 12th Plan.

  • * Collective challenge to formulate viable funding mechanism for modernisation.

  • * Railways should contribute 2% of GDP from the present 1%.

  • * Stress on strengthening safety. Has to be be benchmarked with the best in the world.

  • * Target of reducing accidents from 0.55 to 0.17 has been met.

  • * Special purpose vehicle to be set up on safety protocols.

  • * Independent railway safety authority to be set up as statutory safety body.

  • * Investment of Rs5.60 lakh crore required for modernisation.

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