Mamata Banerjee’s Indian Railway Budget 2010 Highlights

Mamata Banerjee presented second UPA government railway budget,But luster was less compared to budget delivered by Lalu Prasad Yadav last year.

Highlights of Railway Budget 2010 presented by Mamata Banerjee:

• The release of the ‘Vision 2020′ document aimed at widening and strengthening
  the country’s rail infrastructure network and regaining the position of the world’s
  second largest network.
• Ambitious target of completing 1,000 route-kms of new lines in 1 year as
  compared to the last 5-year average of 219 route-kms and 180 route-kms in
  the last 58 years.
• Special emphasis on building Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) and proposal to
  set up a special task force to clear investment proposals within 100 days, thus
• Taking care of the administrative and procedural delays.

Other highlights included:

• Private operators to be permitted to invest in Infrastructure and run special
  freight trains.
• 6 high-speed passenger corridors identified to be executed through the PPP
  mode.
• To set up a National High Speed Rail Authority for monitoring of these
  projects.
• North-South, East-West dedicated freight corridors to be created. No increase in Passenger fares; reduction in service charge on e-tickets.
• No increase in freight rates. Reduction of Rs100/wagon in freight charges for food-grains for domestic use
  and kerosene.
• 101 new suburban trains to be introduced in Mumbai.
• 54 new trains to be introduced.
• Various social welfare programmes also formed part of the Railway Budget
  speech.
• Rs1,302cr provided for passenger amenities in the 2010-11 Budget against
  Rs923cr last year.
• Allocation for construction of new lines increased from Rs2,848cr to Rs4,411cr. Highest ever Annual Plan outlay of Rs41,426cr.
• Dividend payable to general revenues has been kept at Rs 5,479 crore while the Railways have got an additional budgetary support of Rs 5,000 crore.
• They will run from rural hinterland to major cities and metros on fares ranging from Rs 299 upto 1500 kms to Rs 399 upto 2500 kms. Weekly service on pilot basis will be introduced within three months between Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Kolkata.

Links for more info:

http://indiabudget.nic.in/