Here are the highlights of the budget for 2012-13 presented in Parliament by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
The following are the highlights of the railway budget for 2012-13 presented in Parliament on Wednesday by Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi:
Improvement of passenger amenities at a cost of Rs1,112 crore; regional cuisines to be introduced.
World Bank funding of Rs6,500 crore firmed up for dedicated freight corridors; land acquired for 3,300km; first contracts to be handed out during 2012-13
* Standard of hygiene needs to be improved substantially; all out efforts will be made on this in the next six months; duty bound to provide high standard of services; special housekeeping body to be set up for stations and trains.
*Corrosion from night soil being discharged from toilets on tracks costs Rs350 crore annually; green toilets to be installed in 2,500 coaches in the next one year.
* Two thousand one hundred specially designed coaches manufactured to meet needs of the differently abled; aim to provide one such coach in each express train.
* Electrification to be undertaken over 6,500km at an allocation of Rs8,000 crore during 12th Plan.
* Conversion from DC to AC power supply completed in Western Railway corridor of Mumbai suburban rail system; conversion of Central Railway corridor to be completed in 2012-13.
* Elevated corridor from Churchgate to Virar in Mumbai being firmed up.
* Government should consider dividend payback to railways.
* Thirty-one projects over 5,000km being implemented with state govenments sharing costs.
* Capacity augmentation to get Rs4,410 crore during 2012-13.
* Eighty-five new line projects to be taken up during 2012-13.
* One hundred and fourteen new line surveys to be undertaken during 2012-13.
* New line projects to get Rs6,870 crore in 2012-13.
* Gauge conversion to be undertaken over 800km with an allocation of Rs1,950 crore.
* Focus during next five years on five areas: tracks, bridges, signalling, rolling stock and stations.
* Signalling to be improved over 19,000km.
* Investment of Rs1.70 lakh crore on rolling stock in next five years.
* Attempt to increase train speeds to 160 kmph; journey time from New Delhi to Kolkata can be brought down to 14 hours from 17 hours.
* Improvements to railway stations can provide employment to 50,000 people.
* Outlay of Rs60,100 crore during 2012-13, the highest ever.
* Railways will require Rs14 lakh crore in the next 10 years for modernisation.
* Aim to bring down operating ratio from 90% to 84.9% in 2012-13 and to 72% by 2016-17.
* Time has come for formulating national policy for railways on the lines of that for defence and external affairs.
* Railways should grow at 10% annually for sustained GDP growth.
* Railways to invest Rs7.35 lakh crore during 12th Five Year Plan period (2012-17), a quantum jump from the Rs1.92 lakh crore invested in previous plan period.
* Railways must attract 10% of the Rs20 lakh crore government expects to spend on infrastructure during 12th Plan.
* Railways expect gross budgetary support of Rs2.5 lakh crore during 12th Plan.
* Collective challenge to formulate viable funding mechanism for modernisation.
* Railways should contribute 2% of GDP from the present 1%.
* Stress on strengthening safety. Has to be be benchmarked with the best in the world.
* Target of reducing accidents from 0.55 to 0.17 has been met.
* Special purpose vehicle to be set up on safety protocols.
* Independent railway safety authority to be set up as statutory safety body.
* Investment of Rs5.60 lakh crore required for modernisation.
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