Railway Budget

 Highlights of the Railway Budget presented by Mamata Banerjee in Parliament:

No hike in freight and passenger fare.

New Janmabhoomi train between Ahmedabad and Udhampur

Concession for children of accredited journalists up to 18 years.

Free journey for cancer patients in sleeper and 3AC; 75 p.c. concession for companion

Concession of Rs. 100 on freight rates of food grains for domestic use, kerosene.

Survey will be conducted to connect Sealdah and Howrah stations in West Bengal

Karmaboomi train for working class

Sanskriti Express to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's birth 150th anniversary.

Matribhumi special trains for women

Andaman and Nicobar Islands to get railway line from Port Blair to Diglipur

Velachery-St.Thomas Mount MRTS link by 2012

New suburban trains for Chennai

Stations to be named after Bhagat Singh, Mother Teresa, Tipu Sultan, Bahadur Shah Zafar

RPF to have women battalion

Railways to have master plan for North Eastern region

Insurance facilities for licensed porters as part of railway's corporate social responsibility

Kashmir role link to be extended to Sopore

Rs. 1,302 crore provided for passenger amenities

Freight loading target for 2010—11 fixed at 944 million tonnes

Several new lines announced.

New train service to Dhaka, Bangladesh from Agartala.

Gross traffic receipt for 2010-11 pegged at Rs. 94,765 crore

High—speed dedicated passenger corridors to be constructed

Revenue from non-core business of Railways to go up from Rs. 150 crore to Rs. 1,000 crore

Wagon Repair Shop to be set up in Badnera near Amravati in Maharashtra

Railways saved Rs. 2,000 cr from austerity drive

10 more Duranto trains announced

Service charge on AC fares cut to Rs. 20

101 new suburban trains for Mumbai

Dedicated corridors will be implemented on time

Land acquisition: One member from the family would be given employment in Railways

Railways earned net profit of Rs. 1348 crores.

Railways will be the lead partner in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi

Railways to set up Rabindra Museum in Howrah and Geetanjali Museum in Bolpur -- both in West Bengal -- to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's 125th birth anniversary

New testing facility in Bangalore

Railways proposes modernisation of ICF, Chennai.

New housing scheme for 14 lakh employees

Railways to start six water bottling plants in places like Ambala, Thiruvananthapuram, Farakka, Amethi and Nasik to provide clean and cheap drinking water to passengers.

Special task force for clearing investment proposals in 100 days

New business model to be created

Unmanned railway crossing will be phased out in five years

Five sports academies to be set-up, including Delhi, Chennai, Secunderabad

E-tickets to be made available at panchayat level

Railways recruitment: Exams to be conducted in regional languages

Railways recruitment: Simultaneous exams proposed

Modern toilets to be introduced in stations

No privatisation of Railways

Six bottling plants for Rail Neer

Fee waiver for economically weak

Special drive for improving passenger amentities

Railways target 1,000 km of new line in one year

117 new trains flagged-off in the last financial year

Special task force will be set up for early clearance of projects

Mamata appeals to business houses to join hands for building partnership with Railways

Our focus is inclusive growth: Mamata

Mamata presents Railway budget in Lok Sabha. (courtesy The Hindu)

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