Rail Budget Highlights
Ms Mamta Banerjee presented the first Rail Budget of the newly elected government and acknowledged a need to put in more efforts towards development of facilities like passenger amenities, cleanliness, security and catering services.
Rail Budget 2009-10 at a glance:
New Trains (Not the complete list)
- Vishakhapatnam - Secunderabad -Mumbai Superfast (Bi-weekly)
- Bangalore- Hubli -Solapur Superfast (Tri-weekly)
- Howrah - Bangalore Superfast (Weekly)
- Kamakhya - Puri Express (Weekly)
- Gandhidham- Howrah Superfast (Weekly)
- Delhi - Sadulpur Express (Tri-weekly)
- Mumbai - Karwar Superfast (Tri-weekly)
- Durg- Jaipur Express (Weekly)
- Hazrat Nizammudin -Bangalore Rajdhani Express (Tri-weekly) via Kacheguda
- Mumbai-Varanasi Superfast (Daily)
- Varanasi- Jammu Tawi Superfast (Daily)
- Mumbai - Jodhpur Express (Weekly)
- Bangalore - Kochuveli Superfast (Weekly)
Train Frequency Increased
- 2685/2686 Chennai- Mangalore from 3 days to daily
- 2443/2444 New Delhi- Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express from 2 days to 4 days
- 2111/2112 Amravati-Mumbai Express from 3 days to daily
- 2149/2150 Pune - Patna Express from 4 days to daily
- 2487/2488 Jogbani- Delhi Express from 5 days to daily
- 2905/2906 Porbander - Howrah (via Hapa) from 2 days to 3 days
- 4207/4208 Delhi - Pratapgarh Padmavat Express from 3 days to daily
- 2423/2424 New Delhi- Guwahati Rajdhani Express from 5 days to 6 days
- 7091/7092 Secunderabad -Patna from 2 days to daily
- 2739/2740 Secunderabad - Vishakapatnam Express from 4 days to daily
- 2957/2958 Ahmedabad - New Delhi Rajdhani Express from 6 days to daily
- 2487/2488 Jogbani- Delhi Express from 5 days to daily
- 2823/2824 Nizammudin-Durg Chhatisgarh Sampark Kranti from 2 days to 3 days
Infrastructure
- New lines to be introduced
- Gauge conversion at Chhindwara, Ahmedpur and Naghbir
- Doubling at Tala, Secunderabad, Sahibganj, Ara, Ghumani, Hissar, Dankuni, Bibinagar, Krishnanagar, Rajkot, Bandel and Jhansi.
Freight
- Several measures to improve the proportion of freight traffic moving on Railways
- Permission to access private sidings will be given to containers which will help in attracting piecemeal traffic presently not being carried by Railways
- A premium service for container movement with assured transit time is being considered for time sensitive cargo.
- Private ownership of special purpose rolling stock for commodities and private operation of freight terminals will be encouraged.
- A new policy would be unveiled to allow construction and operation of private freight terminals and multi-modal logistic parks.
- Mega logistics hubs are being planned alongside the proposed Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridors
Facilities
- Passenger amenities to be improved
- Emphasis on cleanliness inside trains and on platforms
- Quality of Railway catering to be improved
- Safety and security to be bettered
- Train timings to be adhered to with punctuality
