Highlights of the Railway budget 2008-09

New Delhi, Feb 26 : Following are some more highlights of the Railway Budget for 2008-09 presented by the Railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday.

alance Sheet:

Railway Fund Balance up 2,000 crore

- Rail Plan soars from 11,000 crore to 33,000 crore

- Rs 49,250 crore spent as investment on new projects

Freight:

Achieved 790 tonne payload target

- Wagon turnaround led to a profit of Rs 233 crore

- 3000 new bogies to freight trains

- Uncoaching earning to increase to 4000 crore

- Shipping and road transport companies were allowed to run dedicated trains

- Freight loading increased by 10 per cent

- Freight income target is now Rs 440,000 crore

- Uncoaching target of 20,000 crore

- 160 per cent increase in a decade in freight loading

- 1000 million tonnes target for freight loading

- Special fund for coal and steel corridor

- 75000 crore to be spent on freights including East and West dedicated corridor

- 336 million tonne coal freight target in Financial Year 09

- New wagon lease plan

- Wagons to be available for lease for 20 years

- Leasing companies to have all the freedom

- Companies to get rebate if they lease

- New project for bulk handling of perishables; new terminals to be developed for this

- New projects to be developed on private land; if at all in Railway land then they have to pay for the land

Infrastructure Development:

To have online control of trains in two years

- To link trains via IT communications by 2009

- LHB coaches in all Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains. This will improve speed and comfort

- After 2010 only stainless steel coaches; production by 2008-09

- Mail, Express trains to have stainless steel coaches

- Express trains to have public address systems

- On board cleaning system in every Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Mail and Superfast trains; to be done by a professional agencies

- 281 low-level and 203 medium-level platforms in B-category stations to be converted into high-level platforms and gradually in other stations

- Platform shelter and sheds in all 448 D-level stations

- 195 stations to get footover bridges Platform length to be increased

Plans:

Automatic signalling system in Ghaziabad-Kanpur section to increase traffic

- Kota-Bina line survey

- Raipur-Titlagarh doubling

- Nagpur-Gondia automatic signaling

- New coaches in all Shatabdi trains by 2011

- In next 6 months, new document Vision 2025 to be released

- Vision plan to focus on integration of all departments

Facilities:

- New call centres to be added

- Online linking between control centres and call centres

- To start a new system online coach display board by March 09 in all Mail Express trains, which will show the next station and the time remaining LED displays in all A-category station, in B-class station display station

- Green toilets in all 36000 trains by the end of next Five Year Plan at a cost of 4,000 crore

- 'Go Mumbai' smart card for Mumbai suburban trains, to start from next month

- Smart Tickets to be extended from Western Railways to all others

- Auto ticket sale machines to be increased rom 250 to 6,000 in two years

- Destination time will also be mentioned in tickets

- No queues in 2 years time

- Long-run stations to display next stations, ETA from 2009

- Online arrival, departure display facility by March 2009

ANI