Modi Govt's Railway Budget 2014: Highlights

New Delhi, July 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government appeared for their very first crucial test as Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented his Railway Budget on Tuesday, July 8. It seems to have impressed the aam aadmi (common man) as the minister did not increased the fare as it has already been hiked by the railways. [

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Follow highlights of the Railways Budget 2014-15:

* New Trains: 5 Jansadharan, 5 Premium & 6 AC, 27 Express Trains, 8 Passenger, 5 DEMU & 2 MEMU services; 11 train extensions

* Internet & Workstation facilities on select trains.

* Diamond quadrilateral to be launched for high-speed trains; Rs 100 crore allocated for taking project forward

* Summer internships for under-graduates of engineering & management studies.

* Setting up of Railway University for technical and non-technical subjects. Tie-up with technical institutions.

* Trains on select routes to be speeded up to 160-200 km per hour

* Ticketing to be further modernised to issue 7,200 tickets per minute

* Land records need to be digitised for better utilisation; PPP mode to be explored for better management and revenue

* Innovation Incubation Centre to be set up

* 4,000 women constables recruited in RPF to make travel in women's coaches safer

* Pre-cooked ready-to-eat meals to be introduced

* Food courts to be introduced at major stations to provide regional flavour; pilot project on New Delhi-Amritsar and New Delhi-Jammu Tawi routes

* Forty percent increase in expenditure on cleanliness; CCTVs to monitor cleanliness at stations

* Special train on teachings of Swami Vivekananda

* Receipts in 2014-15 estimated at Rs 164,374 crore, expenditure at Rs 149,176 crore

* Fare revision will bring in Rs 8,000 crore; need another Rs 9,000 crore for golden quadrilateral project

* Backbone of supply chain of defence establishment

* Carry one billion tonnes of freight every year

* Decline in traffic growth in 2013-14

* Would require Rs 5 lakh crores in 10 years for modernisation

* Receipts in 2013-14 were Rs 139,550 crore; expenditure was Rs 130,321 crore

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