The budget presentation is done.
As expected, no increase in passenger fares
Our live coverage efforts have borne some fruit. Or so we would like to think... Mamata has announced a 50% discount twice an year for journalists and their families.
Fellow
journo
brethren
, here is another reason to go get your accreditations, and fast
Four Kavi Guru Express trains to be introduced to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. They will be on the routes of Howrah-Azimganj Express (daily) via Sagardighi, Guwahati-Jaipur Express (weekly) via Kasganj-Faizabad-Gorakhpur-Kokrajhar, Howrah-Bolpur Express (daily) and Howrah-Porbandar Express (weekly).
Rail budget highlights: In Images and in neatly broken down capsules
To mark the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in 2013, Banerjee in her rail budget proposes introduction of new trains called "
Vivek Express". The first four such trains would be introduced on Dibrugarh -Thiruvantharam-Kanyakumari Express (weekly) via Kokrajhar, Dwarka-Tuticorin Express (weekly) via Wadi, Howrah-Mangalore Express (weekly) via Palghat and Bandra(T)-Jammu Tawi Express (weekly) via Marwar-Degana-Ratangarh-Jakhal-Ludhiana.
The
new Shatabdi Expresses will link Pune-Secunderabad, Jaipur-Agra and Ludhiana-Delhi
The full list of Duronto trains: Allahabad-Mumbai AC (bi-weekly), Pune-Ahmedabad AC (tri-weekly), Sealdah-Puri non-AC (tri- weekly), Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam AC (tri-weekly), Madurai- Chennai AC (bi-weekly), Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram AC (bi- weekly), Mumbai Central-New Delhi AC (bi-weekly), Nizamuddin- Ajmer non-AC (bi-weekly) and Shalimar-Patna (tri-weekly).
A Madurai-Chennai Duronto (non-stop trains) has been announced. More Durontos along Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam, Allahabad-Mumbai and Pune-Ahmedabad routes too. In all, nine Durontos have been announced. 56 new express trains and more than 200 new routes too. Of course at the end of it all, she can't help but pause for
thoda paani (some water)...
It's murder out there. The way Mamata is reading out some of these places!
Comments on Twitter: @fakingnews - Railway Budget: Mamata Banerjee announces a special 'sleeper' class rail for Karnataka - Deve Gowda Express
Three new Shatabdis introduced
Here come a slew of new trains, including Delhi-Pondicherry Express and Ernakulam-Bangalore Express. We will have them all once we jot them down...
Comments on Twitter: @PritishNandy - Love Mamata Banerjee's comments while presenting railway budget. Only person I know who speaks in Bengali and pretends its Hindi.
Double-decker AC services announced between Mumbai and Ahmedabad
Suburban rail to be introduced in non-metros
50 new suburban services for Kolkata (
Please, but please, understand! It's elections time there, folks.
Remember the PM's compulsion defence when at the 2G scam presser. The elections are Didi's compulsion).
47 for MumbaiNine additional services to be run in Chennai. Mamata proposes to
remove all un-manned crossings across the country
The number of trains have increased from 16100 last year to 18000 this year Will
introduce new Duronto express trains and increase the frequency of the existing ones
Senior citizens: Women get age relaxation; both men and women get rate concessions - Women aged 58 onwards to be eligible for senior citizen's travel concession. The age limit was 60 earlier. Rate concession for senior citizens - both men and women - has been increased by 10: from 30% to 40%
Proposal to set up a metro coach factory near Singur in West Bengal announced
Physically handicapped and gallantry award winners to get concessions in Rajdhanis and Shatabdis. They were not eligible for it earlier
Railways announces plan to strengthen suburban network of Hyderabad, Secunderabad
Kolkata metro to expand, Mamata announces. Many in Parliament are not pleased and are quick to express their displeasure
. The commotion is still on... Kolkata Metro, it must be noted, is the only metro owned by the Railways
An admission of the Rs 2500-crore deficit now from
Didi.
Railways is passing through a rough phase, she says. But
not before
stating that Railways earnings will exceed the Rs 1-lakh-crore mark for the 'first time in history'
Will set up five polytechnics with the help of the Home Ministry
Railway Stock updates: Titagarh Wagons and
Kalindee Rail Nirman are both down
Railways to set up two wagon units in partnership with private players
16,000 ex-servicemen to be inducted into Railways by year-end
Speaker Meira Kumar intervenes in her singsong voice to plead with Mamata to avoid skipping the 'beautiful couplets'. Cue for Mamata to break into Koi sikh tha, Koi Maratha...
Online ticketing charge reduced from Rs 20 to Rs 10 for AC and from Rs 10 to Rs 5 for non-AC
She introduces 'Go India Fast Card', a single-window ticket for passengers
12000 acres will be provided for the East-West freight corridor
Mamata also announces upgradation plans for 584 stations. 442 of these will be completed by March 2012
States where no accidents occur will get two special trains each. A rather interesting announcement that. Will she be around next year to implement that?
States with low accident rate will be given incentives, she declares
Mamata announces doubling of expenditure on gauge conversion. She also announces that anti-collision devices will be commissioned in three months
Tax-free bonds for 100 billion rupees to be issued by Indian Railway Finance Corporation in 2011/12
Safety is our priority area, says Mamata, while regretting the two sabotage incidents last year
She announces that the annual plan outlay for 2011-12 will be Rs 57630 crores
A suburban railways pilot scheme will help set up shelters for the homeless
She also announces a coach factory to be set up in Palakkad, Kerala
First coach from Rae Bareli coach factory, which was announced last year, will roll out in three months
New railway line capacity to be increased to 700 km
700 MW captive gas-based power plant planned for railways in Maharashtra
85 proposals to involve public-private partnership
She announces a special software unit in Darjeeling
We will focus on improving connectivity, says Didi
Nandigram in West Bengal will get an Industrial Park
A metro coach factory in Kolkata has also been announced
New initiatives: A bridge factory in J&K, to help build new rail bridges
Work on second unit in Perambur to begin
I have attempted to combine economic and social concerns, she says
She shifts to Hindi in her main budget speech. Wait... now she has switched back to English
Budget will be for the common man, says Mamata in her preamble in English
Mamata Didi begins the presentation of her budget, thanking the Prime Minister and Finance Minister for their continued support
The Survey has cited monsoon and rising crude oil prices as among the biggest threats to the India growth story
The Economic Survey has been tabled in the parliament by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It predicts that the Indian economy will grow by 8.75% to 9.25 % in 2011-12
Like we said in our coverage earlier, the budget comes at a time when the railways have run up a deficit of Rs 2,500 crore in the last year.
Rail stocks: Reuters reports that among Railway wagon makers' shares while Kalindee Rail Nirman has stayed flat, Stone India is up 5.5% and Titagarg Wagons 2.8%
The first rail budget was presented by John Mathai. An economist, he later went on to become India's finance minister. His nephew is the man credited with India's white revolution (dairy revolution) Verghese Kurien
Mamata had announced 122 new trains in 2009 and 54 more last year
The budget is set to be presented at 1200 noon
Last year, 1000
km of new tracks were proposed to be laid. 700 kms of tracks have been
Among the strangest proposals in last year's rail budget was probably Mamata Banerjee's announcement to provide astroturf for hockey stadiums at various centres. The decision was a first as far as rail budgets were concerned.
Something to chew over: Railway lines cover about 70000 kms across India. Of this around 54000 kms were built before independence.
Last year, the Indian Railways was given around $9 billion to spend
. This year that allocation is likely to rise.
10:48: The action begins. Mamata Banerjee reaches Parliament. This is going to be her fifth rail budget, her third as a UPA Minister
Pre-budget expectations:
Mamata Banerjee is all set to present her fifth Rail Budget in parliament on Friday. It comes at a time when the railways have run up a deficit of Rs 2,500 crore in the last year.
CPI-M whom Mamata and her Trinamool Congress will be taking on in the upcoming state elections haven't missed the chance to throw in the obvious punches.
'(For the) first time in the history of India, today the minister of railway has achieved the impossible, she actually made the railways bankrupt,' CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters ahead of the budget on Thursday.
'The expenditures are higher than the income. In the last 81 days, there have been 79 ads in newspapers in West Bengal. Such exercises are one of the reasons for the loss,' Yechury went on to add.
Also See: The latest Rail budget storiesMamata being Mamata, though, is determined stick to her guns. More so with this being election year in her home turf of West Bengal.
She had made it clear in her speech last year itself that she preferred "social responsibility" over "commercial viability" when it came to measuring the railways' progress.
This year too she is expected to live up to her promise of a passenger-friendly budget.
Here are the major expectations from it:* No fare hikes
* More than 100 new trains could be announced, including a dozen non-stop Durontos, one Howrah to Chennai and another from Howrah to Guwahati among those expected
* An SMS-based service for passengers to lodge complaints against rail services is also likely to be announced. The sources said the number 132 is being finalised for lodging complaints through SMS from anywhere in the country.
* More
Jana Aaahar outlets at several stations to provide 'quality' food at reasonable rates
Full Coverage: Union budget 2011-12* Increased security at sensitive stations, recruitment of more Railway Police Force personnel, and the deployment of security forces on important trains
* A multi-mode transport system between Hyderabad and Secunderabad is likely
* More DMU (Diesel Multiple Unit) trains are also likely in the north-east
* The Budget is expected to lay focus on installation of safety-related equipment like train protection warning system (TPWS) and anti-collision device (ACD) on some dense routes.
* The setting up of mechanised laundry service at zonal levels to provide clean linens to passengers
* The budget could also find mention of mega base kitchens in the metros preparing 50,000 to 1 lakh meals per day for train passengers. This would be managed by railway itself
* Running of student specials keeping in mind the demand during examinations and of trains with only bookings under Tatkal scheme
* Expansion of the Mumbai suburban rail system to handle more traffic
* A new diesel locomotive shed is expected to come up in Assam
* Announcement of a few schemes involving private players for the expansion of its network.
* A new industrial park, a green toilet manufacturing plant in Nagpur and new coaching complexes at places like Haldia and Majerhat are also expected
* Speeding up of work on the dedicated Rail Freight Corridors project that is lagging behind schedule
* Installation of two bio-diesel plants as the Railways embark on a green mission to cut air pollution and reduce diesel consumption
