Union Railway Budget 2014-15: Key Highlights

Union Railway Minister DV Sadananda Gowda presented Narendra Modi government’s first Railway Budget, which talks about hopes, aspirations and development to make the Railways at par with that of other countries in the world. The budget also emphasizes on passengers’ safety, cleanliness, modernisation and high infrastructure. World class stations, high-speed bullet trains, public-private participation and passengers’ satisfaction are the main features of the Railway Budget 2014.

According to the Railway Minister, 676 projects were sanctioned in the last 30 years. Our of which, only 317 were completed. Also, 99 new line projects were initiated in the last 10 years, but only one project was completed.

Here are the Key Features of Railway Budget 2014:

Objective:

1) Target to become the largest freight carrier of the world
2) To balance commercial with social obligations
3) Railways need Rs 50,000 crore every year for the next 10 years or Rs 5 lakh crore in 10 years for modernisation
4) Explore alternative sources of funding through Rail PSUs
5) Encourage domestic and foreign direct investments in Railways
6) No FDI in Rail Operations
7) Encourage public-private partnership (PPP) model for various projects, including high-speed rails

Expenditure:

1) Budget outlay hiked by Rs 9,000 crore
2) To borrow Rs 11,790 crore from open market
3) Expenditure in 2014-15 pegged at Rs 149,176 cr
4) Rs 5 lakh cr required for ongoing projects
5) Recent fare and tariff hike to mop additional revenue of about Rs 8,000 crore.

Passengers’ Benefits:

1) Escalators, Lifts at all Major Stations
2) Pre-cooked Packaging Food in Railway Catering through reputed brands
3) Strict action against vendors who provide unhygienic foods
4) Feedback service on the quality of food through Interactive Voice Response System to be launched
5) Battery-operated carts for differently-abled & senior citizens at all major stations
6) Computer workstations on select trains upon payment
7) RO Drinking Water for all Rail Passengers
8) Workstations for Business Travellers
9) Wi-Fi facilities at all A1 category Railway stations
10) Office-on-Wheels: Internet & Workstation facilities on select trains such as Shatabdi and Rajdhani Express
11) Mobile-based Wake Up Call facility for Passengers
12) Retiring Rooms in all Stations
13) Separate Coaches for Ladies with RPF deployment
14) 17,000 RPF personnel to be deployed for passengers’ safety
15) 4,000 Women RPF personnel to be hired

Policy Initiatives:

1) Automatic Fare Hike in Future on a periodical basis
2) CCTV Cameras to be used to monitor cleanliness
3) Bio-toilets will be expanded to most trains
4) On-board housekeeping services to be expanded from 400 to all important trains
5) Eco-Tourism, Religious Tourism and Education Tourism to be encouraged by Railways
6) Tourist Trains to be introduced in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh
7) Next Generation E-Ticketing System
8) Food Courts to be set up at all major Railway Stations
9) Ultrasonic rail detection units to ensure safety
10) Special scheme for meritorious performance by railway staff
11) Platform Tickets to be available online
12) 5,400 Unmanned crossings will be removed. Rs 1,780 crore has been allocated for that.
13) To improve e-ticketing to 7200 tickets/min, 1,20,000 user at one moment
14) To set up Rail University for technical and non-technical subjects
15) Allocation of Rs 100 crore rupees for Diamond Quadrilateral network of high speed trains connecting major metros.
16) Paperless office for Railways in the next five years
17) All major ports to be linked by the Railways under Sagarmala Project
18) Logistic Parks and Warehouses for Freight Operations
19) 23 projects in North East to be given adequate funds – 54% hike in funding
20) Dedicated Parcel Trains to be launched
21) 10 Metro Railway Stations will be modernized like airports
22) Banihal-Katra Railway Link in J&K to get priority
23) Solar energy to be harnessed through PPP by utilizing rooftop spaces of stations, railway buildings
24) Corporates to be encouraged to adopt Railway Stations
25) Transport of Fruits, Vegetables and Milk to get top priority
26) Special milk tanker trains to be introduced.
27) Temperature controlled storage for fruits and vegetables
28) GIS Mapping and digitization of Railway Land.

New Trains/Projects:

1) 18 surveys for new lines, 10 for doubling and extension
2) 5 Jansadharan Express, 5 Premium Trains, 6 AC Express Trains, 27 Express Trains, 8 Passenger Trains, 2 MEMU Trains and 5 DEMU Train services have been announced
4) Mumbai city to get 864 state of the art EMUs
5) A special train featuring life of Vivekananda will be introduced
6) Bangalore to get suburban rails
7) New Trains Connecting Char Dham Yatra

High Speed Trains:

1) Rs 100 crore to be allocated for high-speed rail network
2) The first bullet train service will be launched on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route
3) High Speed Trains at 160km-200km per hour to be launched in select sectors
4) Nine high-speed Railway corridors identified: Chennai-Hyderabad, Nagpur-Bilaspur, Delhi-Agra, Delhi-Kanpur, Delhi-Pathankot, Delhi-Chandigarh, Nagpur-Secunderabad, Mysore-Bengaluru-Chennai, Mumbai-Goa.

New Trains/Extensions:

Jansadharan Trains

1) Ahmedabad–Darbhanga Jansadharan Express via Surat

2) Jaynagar–Mumbai Jansadharan Express

3) Mumbai–Gorakhpur Jansadharan Express

4) Saharasa–Anand Vihar Jansadharan Express via Motihari

5) Saharasa–Amritsar Jansadharan Express

Premium Trains

1) Mumbai Central–New Delhi Premium AC Express

2) Shalimar–Chennai Premium AC Express

3) Secunderabad-­ Hazrat Nizamuddin Premium AC Express

4) Jaipur–Madurai Premium Express

5) Kamakhya–Bengaluru Premium Express

AC Express Trains

1) Vijayawada­-NewDelhi AP Express (Daily)

2) LokmanyaTilak(T)–Lucknow (Weekly)

3) Nagpur–Pune (Weekly)

4) Nagpur–Amritsar (Weekly)

5) Naharlagun–NewDelhi (Weekly)

6) Nizamuddin–Pune (Weekly)

Express Trains

1) Ahmedabad–Patna Express (Weekly) via Varanasi

2) Ahmedabad­ Chennai Express (Bi­weekly) via Vasai Road

3) Bengaluru –Mangalore Express (Daily)

4) Bengaluru –Shimoga Express (Bi­weekly)

5) Bandra(T)–Jaipur Express (Weekly)Via Nagda, Kota

6) Bidar–Mumbai Express (Weekly)

7) Chhapra–Lucknow Express (Tri­ weekly) via Ballia, Ghazipur, Varanasi

8) Ferozpur–Chandigarh Express (6 days a week)

9) Guwahati–Naharlagun Intercity Express (Daily)

10) Guwahati–Murkongselek Intercity Express (Daily)

11) Gorakhpur–Anand Vihar Express (Weekly)

12) Hapa–Bilaspur Express(Weekly) via Nagpur

13) Hazur Saheb Nanded–Bikaner Express (Weekly)

14) Indore–Jammu Tawi Express (Weekly)

15) Kamakhya–Katra Express(Weekly) via Darbhanga

16) Kanpur–Jammu Tawi Express(Bi­weekly)

17) Lokmanya Tilak(T)–Azamgarh Express (Weekly)

18) Mumbai_Kazipeth Express(Weekly)via Balharshah

19) Mumbai–Palitana Express (Weekly)

20) New Delhi ­Bhatinda Shatabdi Express (Bi­weekly)

21) New Delhi–Varanasi Express (Daily)

22) Paradeep–Howrah Express (Weekly)

23) Paradeep–Visakhapatnam Express (Weekly)

24) Rajkot–Rewa Express (Weekly)

25) Ramnagar–Agra Express (Weekly)

26) Tatanagar Baiyyappanahali  (Bengaluru) Express (Weekly)

27) Visakhapatnam–Chennai Express (Weekly)

Passenger Trains

1) Bikaner–Rewari Passenger (Daily)

2) Dharwad–Dandeli Passenger (Daily) via Alnavar

3) Gorakhpur–Nautanwa Passenger (Daily)

4) Guwahati–Mendipathar Passenger (Daily)

5) Hatia–Rourkela Passenger

6) Byndoor–Kasaragod Passenger (Daily)

7) Rangapara North–Rangiya Passenger (Daily)

8) Yesvantpur–Tumkur Passenger (Daily)

MEMU Services

1) Bengaluru –Ramanagaram 6 days a week (3Pairs)

2) Palwal–Delhi–Aligarh

DEMU services

1) Bengaluru –Neelmangala (Daily)

2) Chhapra–Manduadih (6days a week) via Ballia

3) Baramula–Banihal (Daily)

4) Sambalpur–Rourkela (6 days a week)

5) Yesvantpur ­Hosur (6 days a week)

EXTENSION OF RUN OF EXISTING TRAINS

22409/22410 Anand Vihar Sasaram Garib Rath Express to Gaya

12455/12456 Delhi Sarai Rohilla Sriganganagar Express to Bikaner

15231/15232 Gondia Muzaffarpur Express to Barauni

12001/12002 New Delhi Bhopal Shatabdi Express to Habibganj

54602 Ludhiana–Hissar Passenger to Sadulpur

55007/55008 Sonpur–Kaptanganj Passenger  to  Gorakhpur

55072/55073 Gorakhpur–Thawe Passenger to Siwan

63237/63238 Buxar–Mughalsarai MEMU to Varanasi

63208/63211 Jhajha–PatnaMEMU to Jasidih

64221/64222 Lucknow-Hardoi MEMU to Shahjahanpur

68002/68007 Howrah–Belda MEMU to Jaleswar