New Delhi, Feb 26 (ANI): Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav presented his fifth and last budget today. The Minister announced a surplus Balance Sheet for the year 2007-08.

Balance Sheet:

* Railway Fund Balance up 2,000 crore
* Rail Plan soars from 11,000 crore to 33,000 crore
* Rs 49,250 crore spent as investment on new projects

Freight:

* Achieved 790 tonne payload target
* Wagon turnaround led to a profit of Rs 233 crore
* 3000 new bogies to freight trains
* Uncoaching earning to increase to 4000 crore
* Shipping and road transport companies were allowed to run dedicated trains
* Freight loading increased by 10 per cent
* Freight income target is now Rs 440,000 crore
* Uncoaching target of 20,000 crore
* 160 per cent increase in a decade in freight loading
* 1000 million tonnes target for freight loading
* Special fund for coal and steel corridor
* 75000 crore to be spent on freights including East and West dedicated corridor
* 336 million tonne coal freight target in Financial Year 09
* New wagon lease plan
* Wagons to be available for lease for 20 years
* Leasing companies to have all the freedom
* Companies to get rebate if they lease
* New project for bulk handling of perishables; new terminals to be developed for this
* New projects to be developed on private land; if at all in Railway land then they have to pay for the land

Infrastructure Development:

* To have online control of trains in two years
* To link trains via IT communications by 2009
* LHB coaches in all Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express trains. This will improve speed and comfort
* After 2010 only stainless steel coaches; production by 2008-09
* Mail, Express trains to have stainless steel coaches
* Express trains to have public address systems
* On board cleaning system in every Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Mail and Superfast trains; to be done by a professional agencies
* 281 low-level and 203 medium-level platforms in B-category stations to be converted into high-level platforms and gradually in other stations
* Platform shelter and sheds in all 448 D-level stations
* 195 stations to get footover bridges
* Platform length to be increased

Plans:

* Automatic signalling system in Ghaziabad-Kanpur section to increase traffic
* Kota-Bina line survey
* Raipur-Titlagarh doubling
* Nagpur-Gondia automatic signaling
* New coaches in all Shatabdi trains by 2011
* In next 6 months, new document Vision 2025 to be released
* Vision plan to focus on integration of all departments

Facilities:

* New call centres to be added
* Online linking between control centres and call centres
* To start a new system online coach display board by March 09 in all Mail Express trains, which will show the next station and the time remaining
* LED displays in all A-category station, in B-class station display station
* Green toilets in all 36000 trains by the end of next Five Year Plan at a cost of 4,000 crore
* 'Go Mumbai' smart card for Mumbai suburban trains, to start from next month
* Smart Tickets to be extended from Western Railways to all others
* Auto ticket sale machines to be increased from 250 to 6,000 in two years
* Destination time will also be mentioned in tickets
* No queues in 2 years time
* Long-run stations to display next stations, ETA from 2009
* Online arrival, departure display facility by March 2009 (ANI)

Indian Railways runs over 14,000 trains a day and cutting fares would help tackle price pressures and woo voters ahead of general elections next year.
 
The Government wants to build up the railways to meet the demands of the fast growing economy that is currently moving at 8.7 per cent.
 
Last year, Lalu had cut freight rates for a string of fuels and minerals by between 5-6 per cent, and outlined plans to modernise the century-and-a-half-old network, one of the worlds largest.
 
The State-run network's earlier reputation for red tape and inefficiency saw it losing freight traffic to trucks and passengers to a fleet of new, cut-price air carriers.
 
According to analysts, the rail network now has a cash surplus of nearly 2.5 billion dollars.
 
In the last two years, the railways has been innovative in its bid to make profit, by introducing competitive bidding for catering to leasing out advertising space on railway buildings, stations and some trains.
 
The Railway Ministry is trying to increase its share of freight by cutting costs and turnaround times, appealing to businesses frustrated by the slow movement of goods.

Railways Minister Lalu Prasad on Tuesday said that a 'Vision 2025' document would be finalized within six months to sustain the magical turnaround in Railway's performance.

The document will set forth targets for the coming 17 years for operational performance and upgradation of services. It will also have a detailed action plan for achieving the stipulated targets and necessary investment plans thereof.

Reiterating the commitment for passengers' amenities, he said the proposed document would also contain details of customer-centric modern passenger services and various freight schemes to sharpen the competitive edge of the Railways.

Route wise planning would be done to reduce traffic bottlenecks, expand the network and modernize the Railways.

Passenger services will be governed by two words - 'comfort and convenience', he said.

A multi-departmental innovation promotion group will also be set up in the Railway Board.

All Railway employees and citizens will be able to send their innovative suggestions to this group.

Lalu Prasad expressed the hope that proposed initiatives would inspire the Railway management and its employees to undertake new experiments and would lay a solid foundation for a resurgent Railway.

Lalu Prasad also announced that the Anti Collision Device would be introduced in Southern, South Central and South Western Railway in the next two years.

This follows encouraging results from the North East Frontier Railways where a Pilot Project is already in place.

A multi-pronged scheme has been prepared to reduce human failure. It envisages provision of automatic safety devices.

Lalu said that sustained efforts have led to significant improvement in safety and consequential fall in accidents that has come down from 234 in 2005-06 to 195 in 2006-07.

Train accidents per million train kilometres have come down to 0.23 in 2006-07 as compared to 0.28 in 2005-06.

The work of replacing 16538 kilometres (KM) of overage track and overage signals at 2359 stations and rehabilitation of 2251 bridges utilizing Special Railway Safety Fund would be completed by the end of this year.

Railways are also taking due precaution to make adequate provision under Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) for timely replacement of overage assets. The provision in DRF has been increased to Rs. 7000 crore in 2008-09 from Rs. 5450 in 2007-08.

Reaffirming Indian Railways commitment to the security of passengers, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today announced drawing up of an Integrated Security Plan to strengthen railway security.

The railway security would be strengthened through installation of Close Circuit TVs at important stations and metal detectors, baggage screening systems and explosive detection and disposal systems for screening passengers and their luggage at vulnerable stations.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) will be equipped with all modern equipment and adequate funds will be provided for this.

Lalu said that 5700 vacant posts of constables and 993 vacant posts of sub-Inspectors in RPF would be filled up by May this year.

Around five per cent of vacant posts of constables and 10 per cent in Sub-Inspectors have been reserved for women. The Government has also created 973 additional posts for which recruitment would be done next year, Lalu said while presenting the Rail Budget in the Lok Sabha. (ANI)