Rail Budget 2013 Live: Pawan Kumar Bansal speech highlights no passenger fare hike
partnership, Rs 1.05 lakh crore through internal resources in the 12th Plan, says Railway Minister P K Bansal.
* Bansal took a dig at mamata Banerjee and said, my intention is not to create a 'hungamma'. I intend to focus on the health of the Railways.
* Elimination of 10,700 unmanned level crossings targeted during the Plan; no more new such crossings to be created.
* Corporate Safety Plan to be prepared for ten-year period (2014-24).
* Identification of 104 stations for upgradation in places with more than one million population and of religious significance
* Railways to set up six more Rail Neer bottling plants
* Railways set to enter 1 billion ton freight club of China, Russia and US.
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who recently revised passenger fares across the board after a decade, has sought Rs 38,000 crore gross budgetary outlay for Railways in 2013-14 as against this year's Rs 24,000 crore.
The Railways' deplorable financial situation is evident from the fact it spends 78% of its revenue receipts for paying wages, pension and fuel bills.
One won't be surprised if the Revised Estimate for this year's opening fund balance is close to nil.
Expert panel led by Sam Pitroda estimates the cost of modernising railways at $120 billion. Rail Ministers before Pawan Bansal have stuck to populist Budgets.
People feel that may not work anymore.Railways need to raise resources for its modernisation and expansion
Railways need clear policy framework for promoting private sector investment and FDI
The Railways' surplus from internal resources has shrunk
