Railway Budget 2018 expectations: Here’s what the common man & experts have on their wishlist from Piyush Goyal

Railway budget 2018, despite not being presented separately, still forms one of the most important segments of the Union budget and is all set to be presented on February 1 by finance minister Arun Jaitley. Since 2017, the 92 year old custom of presenting a separate Railway budget was scrapped and was merged with the general budget for a better capital inflow. Thus, Arun Jaitley became the first finance minister to present the combined budget in 2017. Like every year, this year too people have high expectations from the Modi government considering the fact that this is going to be the full and final union budget under the Modi regime before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Some of the major expectations from Railway Budget 2018 are:

Safety of Passengers
This year people have high expectations in terms of safety from the railway budget 2018 as last year the nation witnessed some unfortunate railway mishaps which took several lives and injured many. In order to prevent such hapless situations in future, it is expected that the government will allocate funds for the repairment of old tracks and station infrastructure.
In addition to it as CCTV cameras in stations and trains play a crucial role in safety and security, Indian Railways is pitching for the procurement of about 12 lakh CCTV cameras to ensure safe and secure travel to all railway passengers.

No Fare Hike
Hike in passenger fare is one of the major concerns among common men, as it severely affects the pockets of salaried class. Thus, it is highly expected that the Modi government will not make any fare hike on budget 2018.

Passenger Amenities
For a better Railway journey, people have high expectations from the Modi government. As this would be the first budget under the current Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, there are high hopes that measures will be taken to improve the railway food quality and sanitation. It is likely that the government will announce installation of bio toilets in this budget. People are also eyeing on improved e-ticket facility this time.

New Trains
As in the last Union budget 2018 no new trains were announced by Finance minister Arun Jaitley, this year under the regime of Railway Minister Piyush Goyal people are looking forward to new set of trains. Meanwhile, double decker luxurious Uday Express is all set to be introduced this year.

Technology in Indian Railways
To beef up digitization, recently Modi goverment has announced that wifi services will be enabled to around 8,500 railway stations including the rural and remote areas at an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore. 600 railway stations to implement the wifi services by March 2018 and it will cover all 8,500 stations by March 2019 was earlier announced by the government. Therefore, there are high expectations from this budget that it will lead to good internet connectivity across all the stations.

Electrification and Signalling system
Along with the construction of new railway routes, removal of all unmanned railway crossings, changing the centuries old signalling system with modern network and electrification of railway networks are in talks.These areas will require huge investments and it is highly expected that the government will certainly allocate an impressive amount to their share.

World class trains
Ahead of the Union budget 2018, Indian Railways is coming up with two semi high speed trains- Train 18 and Train 20. These trains will take Indian Railways to contest in world-class infrastructure. There are expectations that more number of world class trains will be introduced in the near future.