Highlights of the Railway Budget 2014-15

Union Minister for Railways D V Sadananda Gowda presented his maiden Budget on Tuesday, highlighting the government's ambitious plans.

Highlights of the Railway Budget:

* No new increase in passenger fares and freight charges

* Bullet train on Mumbai-Ahmedabad Sector

* Diamond quadrilateral for high speed trains

* Plan to hike speed of trains to 160-200 km/hr in 9 sectors

* Online booking to support 7,200 tickets/minute; to allow 1.2 lakh users log in simultaneously

* Reservation system to be revamped, ticket-booking through mobile phones, post offices to be popularised

* Online platform, unreserved tickets

* Combo parking-platform tickets at stations

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* Women RPF Constables to escort ladies coaches; 4,000 women constables to be inducted

* Retiring room facility to be extended to all stations

* Battery operated cars for differently abled and senior citizens at major stations

* Feedback services through IVRS on quality of food

* Food can be ordered through SMS, phone; Food courts at major stations

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* Cleanliness budget up by 40 pc over last year

* CCTVs to be used at stations for monitoring cleanliness

* Setting up of corpus fund for stations' upkeep; RO drinking water at stations and trains

* Automatic door closing in mainline and sub-urban coaches

* 58 new trains and extension of 11; 864 additional EMUs to be introduced in Mumbai over 2 years

FDI in railway projects, except in operations. 

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* FDI, domestic investments in rail infrastructure

* Office-on-Wheels: Internet & Workstation facilities on select trains

* Wi-Fi in A-1, A category stations and in select trains

* Rail university for technical and non-technical subjects

* Some stations to be developed to international standards through PPP model

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* Parcel traffic to be segregated to separate terminals to make passenger traffic unhindered

* Loss per passenger per kilometre up from 10p (in 2000-01) to 23p (2012-13)

* Solar energy to be tapped at major stations

* Highest ever plan outlay of Rs 65,455 crore for 2014-15

* Expenditure in 2014-15 pegged at Rs 149,176 crore.