The suspense of the railway budget 2011 has been undone today. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee today presented the third budget in UPA-II in the Lok Sabha. The budget seems to be a combination of strong economic focus along with enclosures. The Railway minister said that there will not be any increase in the fares.
Concessions
The budget has incorporated a few concessions such as reducing the eligibility age of senior women citizens from 60 to 58 years and the fare concession for men above 60 from 30 to 40 per cent. It also includes the concession for physically handicapped and gallantry award winners for travel in the Shatabdi and Rajdhani express. The budget has also offered to increase the concession regarding travel for media persons from once to twice a year.
Income
The railway minister announced that the earnings for the year 2010-11 were to exceed Rs.1 lakh crore. She added saying that there are 85 PPP (Public-Private Partnership) proposals received so far and that they will be carried over by forming a single-window system. She also said that the government has decided to set up rail-based industries.
Additional Trains
The budget said that Rs.10,000 crore is to be raised through railway bonds and the Anti-collision device which has been doing well in North West Frontier Railway will be extended to three more zonal railways.
The budget promised to form Rail linkage to Gujarat from Delhi- Mumbai freight corridor, introduction of three new EMU coaches for Mumbai suburban systems and the suburban system of Hyderabad is to be strengthened. The Integrated suburban network is to be set up in Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmadabad and other cities.
The budget included the introduction of the New Durantos to be run on Allahabad-Mumbai, Pune-Ahmedabad, Sealdah-Puri, Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, Madurai-Chennai routes, amongst the other trains. There has been a central organisation created for the implementation of the projects which will keep an account of the non performances. The up gradation of 442 stations will be completed by the end of March. Pilot project is to be commenced which aims at providing shelter to homeless people living along the tracks in Mumbai. The construction of freight corridors have been started in two places.
New Factories
The budget includes plans such as the Metro coach factory to be set up at Singur, West Bengal and a centre of excellence to be set up at Darjeeling. The budget has also promised to introduce the first train from Rae Bareli to roll out in the next three months and the work on wagon factory at Orissa to start immediately after the acquisition of the land.
The railway minister said that the Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojna is to be launched and in addition to that an industrial park is to be set up at West Bengal. The Railways has also planned to set up a factory at Jammu and Kashmir. Funds are to be created for socially desirable projects.
The budget has promised to show interest in the development of business oriented policies in order to support the growth of the industry. The estimation of the working expenditure during the time period 2011-2012 is at Rs.87,000 crore. Payout for the year 2011-12 will be Rs.57630crore which is supposed to be the highest investment in one year. There will be an addition of 180 km of rail lines laid in the year 2011-2012.
Working for the Railways
The Railway minister reported that the implementation of Sixth Pay Commission report has resulted in the increase in the expenditure for the year 2010-11 by 97%, a loss of Rs.3500 crore has been incurred in the year 2010-2011 otherwise.
Regarding the jobs the railway minister said that 16000 ex-servicemen to be offered jobs in railways and the ten year accumulation of 1.75 lakh jobs in the railways will be addressed. She clearly stated that first priority will be given to safety and that the rate of accidents has come down comparatively. She added saying that an all India help line is to be set up shortly.
Some Things Unique
Multi-purpose smart cards are to be introduced for all India travel and the facility of airport like trolleys are to be provided in at more number of stations. An improvised class of air conditioned travel is to be introduced and modern technologies are to be adopted with the help of the centres of academic excellence.
The Manipur capital Imphal is to be connected to the railway network and a train to run to Bangladesh to exhibit the Indian culture.
The only thing which could come to ordinary man seems for age limit to 58 for senior citizen. Additional trains are good one, double dekar train also going to start for Delhi – Jaipur.
Muskaan
it is a good budget but not a best one and if we say some thing more about this some thing for reducing the railway accident must be done by mamta ji and unfortunately there is nothing in this budget for securities of railway passenger…. beside that it is a wonderful budget…