Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge presented the interim Rail Budget in Parliament on Wednesday, amidst uproar over the Telengana Bill and was forced to cut short his speech. The minister said 17 new premium trains and 38 new express trains will be introduced. He left passenger fares and freight rates unchanged. The budget is for the first four months of the of the fiscal year 2014-15 that begins in April. Mr Kharge's maiden budget comes just months away from the general elections.
Here are the highlights from his speech:
No increase in passenger fares or freight charges
To introduce 38 new express trains (See full list of trains introduced)
To introduce 17 new premium trains
To introduce 10 new passenger trains
Premium air-conditioned special train in Delhi-Mumbai sector with shorter advance reservation period and dynamically varying premium over tatkal fare
More high-speed trains to be launched
Passenger rail service to Katra and Vaishnodevi to start shortly
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya on railway map 2014
Initiatives for freight corridors on eastern & western routes is an innovation in rail transport in India and will reduce transport time by half
Railways completed 2207 kilometres of new lines against a target of 2000 km
Electrification of 4556 km completed
Three new rail factories now functional
FY15 annual plan at Rs 64,300 crore
IRFC, the financing arm of Railways to borrow Rs 12,800 crore from market
Railways operating ratio, measure of expenses as a percentage of revenue, for 2013-14 at 90.8 per cent
FY15 freight loading target 1101 MT
FDI being enabled for rail infrastructure
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