New Delhi: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday announced the Railway Budget 2016. Take a look of the highlights of the rail budget here:
1. Wi-Fi at 100 stations this year and 400 stations next year.
2. No passenger fare hike.
3. No new trains announced.
4. Cleaning of toilets by requests through SMS.
5. Children’s menu, baby foods, baby boards to be made available for travelling mothers.
6. 8.5 lakh crore to spent over 5 years for modernization of railway infrastructure
7. Deen Dayal coaches for long distance trains for unreserved passengers.
8. Increased quota for senior citizens and women travellers this year.
9. Enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system from 2,000 tickets/min to 7,200/min. Supporting 1.2 lakh concurrent users now, as opposed to 40,000 earlier.
10. Major railway stations to be brought under CCTV surveillance.
11. North-East India to be connected through broad gauge.
12. Overnight double-decker trains to be introduced on business travel routes.
13. Coolies will be called ‘Sahayaks’.
14. Planning to re-imagine design of coaches.
15. Extending e-catering to all rail stations.
16. A full-fledged Railway University soon.
17. Swacch Bharat: 17,000 bio-toilets and additional toilets to be provided by end of this Fiscal Year.
18. Commission of 2,800 km of new tracks in next year.
19. Time-tabled freight trains by the year 2020.
20. Two dedicated freight corridors by 2019.
21. 1,600 km of electrification this year and 2,000 km proposed for the next year.
22. Broad Gauge Lumding-Silchar section in Assam, connecting Barak Valley with rest of country.
