Context
Corpus of ₹1 lakh crore for safety and zero service charge on digital bookings major highlights of rail budget
Highlights of the Rail Budget
Focus Areas: Rail Budget focussed on improving railway safety, pushing digital transactions, listing railway public sector units and setting competitive rail fares. Focus areas of Indian Railways will be,
- Passenger safety
- Capital and development works
- Cleanliness
- Finance and accounting reforms
No New Trains
Budget refrained from announcing any new railway lines and trains in this budget, as demanded by various MPs, as he was constrained by the model code of conduct in force for the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur
Passenger Safety
- For passenger safety, a “Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh” fund with a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore has been created for five years
- Support by centre: The Centre has provided a budgetary support of ₹5,000 crore out of the ₹20,000 crore earmarked for the fund in 2017-18. The Railways will arrange the balance fund from its own resources
- Guidelines soon:The Centre will soon lay down guidelines and timelines for implementing various safety-related works out of the fund
- Unmanned level crossings on broad gauge will be eliminated by 2020
Withdrawal of service charge
Service charge on e-tickets booked through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been withdrawn
- Earlier, the IRCTC used to levy a service charge of ₹20 on sleeper class and ₹40 on AC class e-tickets
- Revenues will be hit but no impact on Railway: The service charge waiver may hit the Railways’ revenues by ₹2 crore a day. However, the IRCTC will be able to raise money from the market as Budget announced a plan to list the railway PSU on the stock markets
- PSUs to be listed: 3 railway PSUs will be listed in the stock market (people can buy or sell shares of a company). The 3 PSUs to be listed are,
- IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation)
- IRFC (Indian Railway Finance Corporation)
- IRCON (Indian Railway Construction Company Limited)
Partnering with logistic players
The Railways will enter into partnerships with 18 logistics players to provide an end-to-end integrated transport solution for select commodities. Rail rolling stock will be customised to transport perishable goods, especially agricultural produce
Differently-abled friendly stations
As many as 500 railway stations will be made differently-abled friendly by providing lifts and escalators
Cleanliness
- Bio-toilets by 2019 on all rail coaches: For cleanliness, all rail coaches will have bio-toilets by 2019
- Plants to be set up:Plants for environment-friendly disposal of solid waste, along with conversion of biodegradable waste to energy, will be set up at the Jaipur and the New Delhi railway stations, along with five more stations
Solar Power
7,000 railway stations would get solar power as per Rail Budget
