Major Highlights of Railway Budget 2008-2009

New Delhi: Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is presenting his fifth railway budget in Lok Sabha. Headlines India is bringing you the major highlights of the Railway Budget 2008-09.

Rates of AC 3-tier tickets to be cut by 4 per cent during peak seasons
Rates of AC 2-tier tickets to be cut down by 2 per cent during peak seasons
Rates of AC 1st class tickets to be cut down by 7 per cent
Sleeper class fares cut down by 5 per cent
Super-fast charge to be cut down by Rs 8
Freight rates for Petrol and Diesel by 5 per cent
5 per cent reservation for women in Railway Protection Force (RPF)
50 per cent discount for women senior citizens in all trains
50 per cent discount to AIDS patients in sleeper class
70 days bonus for all railway employees
10 new 'Garib Rath' trains to be introduced in 2008-09
53 new trains to be introduced across different sectors
Preference for minorities for recruitment in railway boards
Railways to be expanded by 35,00 kms further
Railways registered a profit of Rs 25,000 crore in 2007-08 fiscal
Railways earned a surplus of Rs 68,778 crore in last 4 years
Railways earned Rs 2,000 crore from 3,000 additional bogies
Lalu claims that productivity assets has increased
Till December 2007, 8.2 per cent growth in freight loading
Railways registered an Operating Ratio of 76.3 per cent in 2007-08 Fiscal
All trains to have modular toilets
Go-Mumbai Card, a multi purpose card for Mumbai trains
Passengers can get E-Tickets on the Internet
Plan to do away with long queues on Reservation counters in 2 years
Number of trains increased in peak seasons
Display boards to be introduced on all stations of country
Maintenance of trains to be transferred to private agencies
Rs 500 crore to be spent on maintenance of platforms
30 big stations to have multi-level parking
High level platforms to be introduced on major stations
50 more stations to have escalators and elevators facility
Rs 49,250 crore to be invested in new projects
Smart Cards to be introduced for railway passengers
Automatic signalling system to be introduced
Automatic ticket vending machines to be introduced
Public address system to be introduced in major trains
Rs 4,000 crore to be spent on "Green Toilets" in 36,000 coaches
Newly designed high capacity wagons to be manufactured
20,000 freight wagons to be introduced
Rajdhani and Shatabadi Express to get modern coaches
200 million tonnes target set for freight carriage in steel and cement sector
5,000 open wagons to be upgraded to stainless steel
Construction on East-West freight corridor to begin in 2008-09
20,000 kms high density network to be created for iron ore and coal sector
Bulk handling terminals for food grains and cement
48 new container depots to be established
Delhi, Mumbai Central and Patna railway stations to be upgraded
Rs 5 crore registration fee to lease a wagon
Railway in talks with foreign companies to design new wagons
Private investment for loading terminals in railways property
Stainless steel bogies to be introduced in Mail and Express trains
Emphasis on security: CCTVs and Metal detectors to be installed on all major stations, Guards to be placed on all manned railway crossings
Anti-collision and Fire safety devices to be introduced in all trains
New Anti-fog devices to be introduced
Mother-child express to be launched, it will have special medical facilities
Decorated army men to get special concessions
Under graduate students to get more concessions
State-of-Art equipments for RPF
Increased cooperation with Chinese Railway and SAARC countries
Season tickets for female students till graduate level
Several railway workshops to be modernised
New rail coach factory to be setup in Kerala
Special Delhi-Pune trains to run in October 2008 during 'Pune Common Wealth Youth Games 2008'
Better railway connectivity to be developed in J&K and North-Eastern states
'Railway Vision 2025' to plan development of railways for next 17 years
Daily-JNPT-North freight corridor to be launched