Key highlights of Railway Budget 2015

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Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu, who has consciously refrained from any big bang reforms in the Rail Budget 2015, made a slew of announcements to bring the Indian railways back on growth trajectory. BI India lists down some of the key pointers of his rail budget speech. Here goes the list:

1) In a big relief to the aam aadmi, the railway minister did not go for any hike in the rail fares this budget

2) The rail minister plans to attract investments worth Rs 8.50 lakh crore in the next five years

3) Rail minister has stressed on clean railways and hence announced 17,000 toilets to be replaced by bio-toilets

4) Keeping the key stakeholder in mind, the rail minister has allocated 67% more funds for passenger amenities

5) Considering the rise in complaints of pilferage of goods, the rail minister announced nationwide 24*7 helpline numbers, which will be effective from March 1, 2015. ( (24*7 helpline 138, Toll free No. 182 for security complaints)

6) The Rail minister intends to raise funds through SPVs and partnership

7) Opening the gates for private sector, the rail minister entrusted private agencies to set up waste-to-energy conversion plants

8) Emphasizing on PM Modi’s ambitious dream of eliminating poverty, Rail Minister Prabhu asserted that railways can play a pivotal role in poverty elimination

9) Calling for larger investments in the sector, the Railway Minister stressed that under investment in Indian railways has led to poor development of Railways

10)He has promised to revamp railways within the next five years and plans to increase the track capacity by 10 per cent to 1.38 lakh km.