Railway budget 2016

Central Thrust of the Rail Budget NDA Govt’s Rail Budget 2016-17 comes up with a strong vision to Reorganize, Restructure & Rejuvenate the Indian Railways by New Processes & Structures, New Norms & New sources of Revenue.
Great focus on passengers’ comfort and convenience, while ensuring no hike in fares.

1. Introduction of Antyodaya Express, a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, to be operated on dense routes.
2. Addition of 2 to 4 Deen Dayalu coaches in long distance trains for unreserved trains with facility of drinking water and high number of mobile charging points.
3. ‘Clean My Coach’ service through SMS.
4. Additional 30,000 bio-toilets
5. Bio-Toilets at stations for senior citizens, divyang and women travellers
6. Facility of cancellation through the 139 helpline.
7. ‘Vikalp’ ( Alternative Train Accommodation System)scheme to be expanded to provide choice of trains to wait-listed passengers.
8. Introduction of a new policy where each stall at station can provide multiple products including milk products and OTC medicines.
9. Improved passenger amenities and beautification on stations at pilgrimage centres including Ajmer, Amritsar, Bihar Sharif, Chegannur, Dwarka, Gaya, Haridwar, Mathura, Nagapattinam, Nanded, Nasik, Pali, Parasnath, Puri, Tirupati, Vailankanni, Varanasi & Vasco.
10. Modern state of the art coaches.
11. Wi-Fi at 400 stations in next 2 years.

Significant boost to Railway Infrastructure, with a vision to usher in a new era of operational efficiency and technology.

1. Full focus on comprehensive reforms to transform Indian Railways
2. Plan Budget is pegged at Rs 1.21 lakh crore, 21% higher than the expected Plan expenditure in 2015-16
3. 2015-16 will surpass target of commissioning 2,500 km Broad Gauge lines.
4. 2016-17 commissioin of 2,8000 kms of Broad Gauge track.
5. 83 new projects involving a total investment of Rs 1,14,122 crore covering about 7,834 kms covering new lines, doubling, gauge conversion and Metropolitan Transport Project.
6. In 2016-17, Broad Gauge lines at the rate of over 7 kms per day against an averae of about 4.3 kms per day in the last 6 years.
7. 3 New Freight Corridors: North South connecting Delhi to Chennai, East-West connecting Kharagpur to Mumbai & East Coast connecting Kharagpur to Vijaywada.
8. Innovatively raising non-fare revenues
9. Station redevelopment & commercial use of vacant land
10. Monetising land along tracks
11. Monetising online assets & e-commerce activities
12. Increasing the advertising revenues by more than 4 times the current revenues
13. Expand service offering to e-commerce
14. Restructuring Railway Board on Business Lines
15. Creating an organization for data analytics
16. SPV to be formed for High Speed Corridor from Ahmedabad-Mumbai
17. 44 new lines, gauge conversion and doubling projects proposed in partnership mode

Railways to serve as a catalyst for India’s growth. Connecting North-East, empowering farmers, boosting manufacturing & generating employment.

1. States of Mizoram & Manipur will come on the Broad Gauge map of the country with commissioning of the Kathakal-Bhairabi & Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge conversion projects.
2. Encouraging development of cold storage facilities on vacant land near freight terminals. Local farmers and fishermen would be given preferential usage of the facility.
3. Make In India:
4. After agreement for setting up 2 loco factories in India with an order book of about Rs 40,000 crore, a similar bid process started for train sets for Rajdhani & Shatabdi services.
5. Production units & workshops to aim at generating revenues of about Rs 4,000 crore by 2020 by manufacturing products.
6. IRCTC empanelling Self help groups for providing catering/cooking services
7. Partnering with NABARD to provide support & access to IRCTC website to ensure extensive e-marketing for products developed by self help groups.
8. Partnering with Khadi & Village Industries Commission to support creation of employment and self reliance in rural India resulting in generation of 17 lakh man days.
9. Will encourage sourcing of products from SC/ST entrepreneurs.
10. Allowing floriculture/horticulture along tracks.
11. Expanding the freight basket by looking beyond core commodities.
12. Container sector to be opened to all traffic barring coal and specified mineral ores and part-loads during the non peak season.
13. To reduce energy consumption in non-traction areas by 10% to 15%
14. More than 2000 locations provided with Rain Water Harvesting, to be further expanded.