Following are the main highlights of the Railway Budget 2002-2003:
  • Indian Rail budget 2002-03: total receipts at Rs 439.2 billion
  • Railways to spend Rs 26.3 billion rupees of internal funds in 2002-03
  • Total expenses pegged at Rs 429.71 billion
  • All rail procurements to be decentralised, Railway Protection Force to be strengthened
  • Autonomy of Railway general managers to be increased
  • Railways to connect ports by sharing costs
  • Economic slowdown has impacted freight
  • Railways to introduce high speed refrigerated wagons

  • Expenditure on new rail lines to be Rs 3 billion
  • 214 km new routes to be added, electrification of 375 km of routes proposed.

  • 2002-03 declared `Passenger Amenities Year`
  • 25 additional express trains to be introduced. They are as follows: Durg-Bangalore via Gondia, Chanda Fort and Secunderabad (weekly), Guwahati-Jodhpur-Bikaner via Jaipur (Weekly), Jammu Tawi-Haridwar, Sarnath-Rajgir Budh Purnima express via Gaya (Tri-weekly), Durg-Jaipur (Weekly), Bangalore-Gandhidham via Hubli (Weekly), Ahmedabad-Varanasi via Allahabad (Weekly), Hatia-Mumbai (Lokmanya Tilak terminus) via Gaya, Varanasi (Weekly), Garwa Road-Hatia, Cannanore-Bangalore (Weekly), Chennai Egmore-Trivandrum via Nagercoil, Habibganj-Mumbai (Lokmanya Tilak Terminus) (Weekly), Bhopal-Howrah (Weekly), Jaipur-Mumbai (Bandra terminus) (Tri-Weekly), Nanded-Pune (Tri-Weekly), Nizamuddin-Kanyakumari via Villupuram (Weekly), Howrah-Gorakhpur via Narkatiaganj (Weekly), New Delhi-Howrah (Bi-Weekly)
  • 16 Jan Shatabi trains to be introduced. They will be introduced on the following routes:
    Madgaon-Mumbai, Guwahati-Dimapur, Ragarh-Raipur-Durg, Ahmedabad-Bhuj, Tatanagar-Ranchi, Bangalore-Hubli, Eranakulam- Trivandrum, Kota-Nizamuddin, Bhubaneswar-Howrah, Dehradun-New Delhi, Howrah-Malda Town, Varanasi-Lucknow, Chandigarh-New Delhi, Chennai-Vijayawada via Gudur, Habibganj-Jabaalpur and Katihar-Patna.
  • Frequency of 13 trains to be increased; 7 new passenger trains to be introduced
  • Passenger fares to be rationalised; marginal increase in fares of sleeper class
  • Fare, freight proposals to take effect from April 1
  • Railways to pay Rs 26.96 dividend to govt
  • Freight cut for iron, steel, cement and oil products; marginal increase in freight of iron ore and coal
  • Tariff slabs to be cut from 59 to 32

    • Bureau Report