Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi, Feb 26: Presenting his fifth consecutive Railway Budget, Lalu Prasad Yadav announced a record surplus of Rs 25,000 crores for FY-08. In a major bonanza, he announced a cut in passenger fares. First Class A/C fares will be down 7%, A/C 2 down 4% and A/C 3 will see a reduction of 2%. Second Class fares have been cut by 5% for tickets beyond 50 kms. Lalu also gave a concession of 5% on petrol and diesel in freight. 53 new Mail and Express trains and 10 Garib Raths have also been introduced.

Lalu said the Railways had made a tremendous turnaround and announced a profit of Rs 68,778 crores in the last five years. The minister said he was proud that Rs 15,000 crores had been paid as dividend to the government in the same period. Lalu then unveiled a futuristic vision to make Railways a modern enterprise.

Following are the highlights of the Railway Budget 2008-09:

Fares

• A/C First Class fares cut by 7%
• A/C-2 cut by 4%
• A/C-3 reduced by 2%
• Second Class sleeper cut by 5% for tickets beyond 50 kms
• Second Class passenger fares cut by 5% for tickets over Rs 50
• Re 1 discount for ticket upto Rs 50

Rebates

• 50% concession for AIDS patients
• 30% rebate for male senior citizens
• 50% for women senior citizens instead of 30%
• Paramveer Chakra and Ashok Chakra winners along with companion can use their card now even in Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains to travel free
• Girls to get free season tickets till graduation
• Free tickets for male students till Class XII

Facilities for Passengers

• 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 cr
• ’Go Mumbai’ smart card for Mumbai suburban trains, to start from next month
• Smart Tickets to be extended from Western Railways to all others
• Automatic ticket sale machines to be increased from 250 to 6,000 in two years
• Destination arrival time will also be mentioned in tickets
• Online arrival, departure display facility by March 2009
• No queues in 2 yrs time
• Long-run stations to display next stations, ETA from 2009
• 7-bogey Mother-Child Health Express to be introduced
• Mulling ticket booking and confirmation via mobile phones
• E-ticket booking up at 3 lakh vs 1 lakh a year earlier
• 15,000 computer ticket counters in two years vs 3,000 now
• TV, Internet services on trains in the future
• 139 phone enquiry services available on request

New Trains

• To start 53 new passenger trains
• To start 10 new Garib Raths

Full List of New Trains»

Balance Sheet

• Cash surplus of Rs 25,000 crore for FY08 vs Rs 20,000 cr in FY07
• FY08 net revenue at Rs 18,400 cr
• Operating Ratio of 76%
• Cash surplus dividend estimate at Rs 250,65 in FY08
• Rs 15,000 cr dividend in 5 yrs
• 233 mn tonne incremental loading earned Rs 14,000 cr revenue
• Additional Rs 2,000 cr earnings on freight services
• Additional 20,000 cr earned on freight service
• Railway Fund Balance up 2,000 cr at Rs 20,480 cr
• Rail Plan soars from 11,000 cr to 33,000 cr
• Rs 68,800 cr cash surplus over 4 years
• Rs 49,250 cr spent as investment on new projects
• FY08 utilisation ratio 63.3%
• Passenger earnings up 14% on year till December
• Achieved 790 tonne payload target
• FY08 DRF provisions at Rs 5,450 cr; at 7,000 cr for FY09
• Railway employees at 1.4 million in FY08
• IRCON International is doing extremely well
• Second in profit terms is RITES
• RailTel has now also become profitable

Freight

• Concession of 5% on petrol and diesel
• 6% concession for freight to Northeast region
• Wagon turnaround led to a profit of Rs 233 cr
• 3000 new bogies to freight trains
• Uncoaching target of 20,000 cr
• Uncoaching earning to increase to 4000 cr
• Shipping and road transport companies were allowed to run dedicated trains
• Freight loading increased by 10%
• Freight loading earned Rs 34,700 cr Apr-Dec
• Freight income target is now Rs 440,000 cr
• 310 excess freight loading target in next 4 yrs
• 160% increase in a decade in freight loading
• 1000 mn tonnes target for freight loading
• Special fund for coal and steel corridor
• 75000 cr to be spent on this including East and West dedicated freight corridor
• 336 mn tonne coal freight target in FY09
• Sops for special purpose, high capacity wagons
• New wagon lease plan
• Wagons to be available for lease for 20 yrs
• Leasing companies to have all the freedom
• Companies to get rebate if they lease
• Wagon leasing cos to pay Rs 5 cr
• Companies for wagon lease must have Rs 250 cr net worth
• In talks with foreign cos for new wagon designs
• 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 the developer has to pay for the land
• 120 mn tonne freight from steel, target is 200 mn tonne by FY11
• Ludhiana-Howrah and Delhi-NPT dedicated freight corridors
• Others to be taken up to give proper access to ports
• 25-30 tonne axle load wagons to be started
• To make 22.9 tonne stainless steel axle load wagons by FY09
• 5000 open wagons to be changed to stainless steel
• To set up real-time online freight tracking mechanism
• 3 Rolling Stock unit for dedicated freight corridor
• Delhi-JNPT North-West Freight Corridor okayed
• CONCOR to set up 8 container depots
• Container, rail depot development to get Rs 2,000 cr
• Warehousing and logistics services to be given to Railways
• Purchased 42 rakes for Rs 500 cr
• To up container train operators to 50-55 trains
• FY08 wagon production at 15,000; FY09 target at 29,000
• Acoustics, load-detectors at key locations at Rs 250 cr
• Annual steel tariff aim of 200 mn tonne 2011 vs 120 mn tonne
• Annual tariff aim of 200 mn tonne 2011 for cement

Infrastructure Development

• To improve running of trains; new system to be developed
• To develop online train control sysytem in two yrs
• To link trains via IT communications by 2009
• Management of resources will be made easy; to complete integration in next 5 yrs
• Rs 250000 cr allocated for IT in next 5yrs
• 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 platform in B-category stations to be converted into high-level platforms and gradually in other stations
• Platform shelter/sheds in all 448 D-level stations
• 195 stations to get footover bridges
• Platform length to be increased
• Multilevel parking in 30 big stations
• 50 big stations to have lift and escalators
• 20000 new wagons in FY09
• 250 new locomotives FY09
• Stainless steel bodies even for wagons
• New Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal, Patna and Sikandarabd to be developed as world-class stations at a cost of Rs 15000 cr
• New JV with NTPC for captive power is delivering well
• New rail coach factory in Kerala, to cater to Metro train coaches and other needs
• Kerala govt has given 1000 acre free land for factory
• New wagon repair factory in Chapra
• New land acquisition policy to make the process easy

Plans

• Automatic signalling system in Ghaziabad-Kanpur section to increase traffic
• Kota-Bina line survey
• To double some lines to transport coal to power units
• Raipur-Titlagarh doubling
• Bellary-Hopspet doubling
• Baspani-Haridaspur doubling
• Nagpur-Gondia automatic signalling
• Hardaspur-Piplav new line
• Surat-Hazira new line SPV
• SPV for links to Mundra, Kandla, Krishnapatnam Ports
• SPVs planned for 30 yrs
• Completed approach road for Pipavav Port
• Hassan-Mangalore line completed
• Haldia Port on radar for improved connection
• Dalli-Rajhara-Rowghat line to be completed
• Bhanupalli-Bilapur new line in HP
• Plan Rs 82-cr spend to upgrade Jamalpur rail unit
• New coaches in all Rajdhani trains by 2010
• New coaches in all Shatabdi trains by 2011
• Golden Quadrilateral to be strengthened
• New PPP schemes to increase revenue
• Unused land to be developed and revenue through this PPP to be 4000 cr
• Total revenue from PPP schemes to be 25000 cr
• To have one more Rail Captive power plant in Bihar
• To start Rail Captive power plant in Aurangabad

Safety

• Close circuit cameras at all important stations
• Decrease in accident rate from 0.28% to 0.23%
• New bridges, new signalling system to be completed to bring down accident rate further
• To remove human error Anti-Collision System (ACS) is being developed, and new track testing system is being worked out
• ACS was tried out in NF railways, it has been encouraging
• To implement ACS in phases
• Plan ACS in South, South Central
• Rail Impact detectors are being developed
• Analogue machines to be replaced by digital machines for signalling
• Unmanned crossing to be eliminated in double lines by building RoB; will do it on its own through BoT as state govts are not helping with funds
• 16600 level crossings, 18000 unmanned crossings; pose greatest danger.
• Plan to man most of the unmanned crossings
• Anti-fire gear to cost Rs 700 cr if pilot successful
• Plan fire-prevention device in coaches on pilot basis
• To have metal detectors, baggage scan at key stations

Railway Workers

• Vacant posts to be filled up in GRP
• GRP to get new weapons
• In Group D out of 6000 new appointments 5000 are from SC/ST
• Gangman to be promoted to man-level crossings
• Coolies to be promoted as gangmen
• Pay bonus for employees increased from 65 days to 70 days
• Railway hospitals to be upgraded
• Staff benefit fund to be Rs 350/employee for FY09
• Staff benefit fund to be upped 10 times in FY09
• To provide CFL bulbs in six lakh staff quarters

Miscellaneous

• In next 6 months, new document ‘Vision 2025’ to be released
• Vision to set targets for the next 17 yrs
• Vision plan to focus on integration of all departments
• Kalka-Shimla Railway to get UNESCO world heritage status; focus to be on tourism
• Tie-up with China Railways; working for Trans-Asian Railway Project
• Orders from six countries for Indian rail coaches
• To promote rail tourism using steam locomotives
• To set up multi-department Business Promotion Groups
• Gave Rs 500 cr for pension for Sixth Pay Commission

Lalu Speak

• We have turned the Indian Railways into a profit-making organisation
• Railways has done tremendous work
• Indian Railways most-profitable public transport entity
• Railways has generated huge surplus owing to the well-thought policies of the UPA government
• We are working on increasing the productivity of the railway workers
• We have increased the productivity of railway assets
• We thought out of the box to deliver record breaking performance
• We have turned out to be the cheapest mass transporters in country
• We played the volume game to earn profit
• Everyone has appreciated my work for the betterment of Railways
• I have diligently worked on raising the bar high and increasing our profits
• Wagons have been improved