Railway Budget »
While the railway budget for 2013-14 had no new project for the city, it did sanction
Rs. 70 crore for various amenities such as escalators, foot overbridges, automatic ticketing vending machines (ATVM) and improvement of stations.
Plans to build 3,338-km Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs) on India's eastern and western flanks may soon see the light of day, with railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal announcing that civil contracts to build 1,500 km of tracks will be awarded this fiscal.
Travelling in Anubhuti coach, the special AC luxury class proposed in this year's rail budget, will be one and half times costlier than the First AC executive class in Shatabdi trains.
Railway minister PK Bansal on Tuesday announced two new surveys for two railway lines - the Kalyan-Kasara third line and the Naigaon-Juchandra cord line - but other than that, the budget has not made provisions for a single new project in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Kailash Korde reports.
Deputy chief minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar, on Tuesday, took on its ally Congress by terming the railway budget presented by union minister PK Bansal as unfair and disappointing for the city and the state.
Mumbaiites who were hoping that the 2013-14 railway budget, presented on Tuesday, would assure them new projects to ease their train commute woes will have been disappointed. Prajakta Chavan Rane reports.
With no significant projects announced for the city, the railway budget was a disappointment for the 75 lakh Mumbaiites who use local trains every day.
Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda hailed this year's Railway Budget and lauded the proposal to set up a rail coach manufacturing unit in Sonepat and introduction of new rail lines. He said the move had fulfilled long-standing demands of the state.
The Indian Railways may not be in good financial health but railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was happy to announce that it has now joined the elite railway billion club of China, Russia and United States in transporting over a billion tonnes of goods in a year.
Even before railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal could finish reading his budget speech on Tuesday, opposition parties stormed to Lok Sabha well to protest the "discrimination" against some states in the budget.
The proposed near 6% hike in freight rates for railways announced during the railway budget on Tuesday is likely to see a minor shift in freight from railways to trucks.
The Indian Railways, the world's fourth largest network, runs into significant yearly losses, which have risen sharply because fuel prices have been increasing, while fares haven't.
The proposal to link freight rates to any changes in diesel prices from April is likely to lead to a 5-6% hike in freight rates.