Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presented the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Lok Sabha on Thursday. While presenting the buget, he said that the core objective of Indian Railways to become an engine of economic growth and create employment and provide customer service. Full coverage

Rail Budget 2016-17 highlights

– E-ticketing facility on foreign debit/credit cards
– No change in passenger fares, freight rates
– Auto companies to benefit as India’s first rail auto hub will come up in Chennai that will reduce logistics cost.
– E-booking of tickets on concessional passes for journalists introduced
– 33 pc reservation to women in reserved quota in Railways will be introduced
– Ajmer, Amritsar, Gaya, Mathura, Nanded, Nashik, Puri, Tirupati, Varanasi, Nagapattinam and other pilgrim stations to be beautified
– Draft Bill for railway development authority to be drafted soon. Railway board to be reorganised on business lines and chairman to be re-empowered
-Will increase lower berth quota for senior citizens by 50 per cent
– Four fold increase in advertising revenue envisaged in the next fiscal
– IRCTC website to consider e-commerce initiatives because of high number of hits
– Cold storage to be set up in vacant lands near warehousing facilities
– Elevated suburban train corridors in Mumbai
– Suresh Prabhu appeals to staggering of office timings to reduce pressure on suburabn trains
– Ring railway to be revived in New Delhi
– High speed passenger corridor from Ahmedabad to Mumbai
– New uniforms and training for porters  Coolies to rechristened as ‘Sahayaks’
– Overnight double-decker train Uday Express to be introduced on busiest routes, carrying capacity to be 40 per cent more, says Prabhu
– 400 railway stations to be equipped with wifi, 100 this year, says Suresh Prabhu
– Baby milk and hot water to be provided in trains
– Insurance companies being asked to provide optional travel insurance to passengers prior to travel
– Battery operated services for the old and special people
– Railway stalls to over-the-counter medicine
– 3 new super-fast trains — Humsafar Express, Tejas, Uday
– Aastha circuit trains to connect important pilgrim centres
– Super-fast unreserved train Antyodaya Express
– Deen Dayalu unreserved coaches with water, mobile charging points
– Local cuisine of choice to be made available to the passengers
– To introduce methods which will help passengers SMS to get the toilets and coaches cleaned
– Refund process to made simpler, bar coded tickets to be introduced
– Sale of tickets to be initiated by hand held devices and platform tickets through vending machines, says Suresh Prabhu
– Rs 3000 crore saved in energy a year ahead of schedule, says Suresh Prabhu
– MoUs with 6 states for Joint Ventures
– Outlay for railway electrification increased by 50 per cent; 2,000-km route to be electrified next fiscal
– We intend to commence wi-fi system at 100 stations this year in partnership with Google: Suresh Prabhu
– World’s first bioflushing toilets was developed by us in Dibrugarh Rajdhani, says Suresh Prabhu
– 2 new loco factories to be set up at cost of Rs 40,000 cr under Make in India initiative, says Suresh Prabhu
– Common people have always been our focus, says Suresh Prabhu. No barrier between common people and Railways
-Indian Railways to shift to paperless contact management system as e-initiative, says Suresh Prabhu
-No unmanned level crossing by 2020, says Suresh Prabhu
-On Make in India, we were able to finalise two locomotive of Rs 40,000 cr, says Suresh Prabhu
– Major initiative in North East announced, says Suresh Prabhu
– Important to built more dedicated freight corridors, says Suresh Prabhu. To commission three corridors Delhi to Chennai, connect Kharagpur to Mumbai and Kharagpur to Vijaywada
-Employee addition of 9 crore mandays in 2017, says Surehs Prabhu
– Next year 2,800 km of track at 7 kms per day against 3 km per day to be commissioned, says Suresh Prabhu
– Action has been initiated 139 budget announcement since last year, says Suresh Prabhu
– Target revenue is Rs 184, 820, 10 per cent up from the revised target, says Suresh Prabhu
– Rs 8,724 cr savings from Indian Railways last year, says Suresh Prabhu
– Capital plans for next year 1.21 lakh crore
– Indian Railways expecting an operating revune of 92%, says Suresh Prabhu
– Will work on three pillar strategy: new revenue, new norms and new structure, says Suresh Prabhu
-Challenge conventional thinking on freight policies to opimise productivity,  says Suresh Prabhu
– Budget reflects aspiration of all Indians, says Suresh Prabhu
– Railway ki Gati, Rashtra ki pragati, Suresh Prabhu says in hindi
– Budget a collective participation with industry association, says Suresh Prabhu
– Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu says people contributing in cleanliness in railways.

12 pm: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presents Railway Budget 2016

11.54 am: Stock markets flat 5 minutes before Suresh Prabhu rises to present Railway Budget 2016-17 .Sensex was trading 21.59 points down at 23,067.34, Nifty was trading 14.60 points down at 7,004.10

11.37 am: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu reaches Parliament to present Budget at 12.

11.23 am: Rajya Sabha commences business. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to present Rail Budget 2016-17 in Lok Sabha at 12 pm.

Railway Budget Live highlights
Suresh Prabhu at Rail Bhawan alongwith MoS Manoj Sinha carrying Railway Budget 2016-17 documents. (Photo: ANI)

11.04 am: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu says budget has been prepared to meet expectations of common man. He has left for Parliament to present his second Rail Budget 2016.

10.53 am: It’ll be a good budget and in benefit of the nation, says Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu ahead of Rail Budget (Source: ANI tweet) 

10.43 am: Let’s see what he’ll(Suresh Prabhu)give, whether bullet train is going or people going to get bullets, says Mallikarjun Kharge (source: ANI tweet)

10.35 am: Sensex, Nifty cautious ahead of Rail Budget 2016. Sensex trading 27.88 points up at 23,116.81, while Nifty50 is trading 1.80 points up at 7,020.50.

10.22 am: Suresh Prabhu has a tough choice to make in his second budget on whether to raise fares and freight rates as railway finances have come under tremendous strain.

10.16 am: Every Indian railway station should be made fully accessible for physically-challenged people by incorporating measures as per universal accessibility standards, a NGO run by an Indian-American said ahead of the annual railway budget.

9.55 am: Railway Budget 2016-17 has been prepared keeping in view the needs of common man, says Manoj Sinha (MoS, Railways)

9.52 am:  Railway-linked stocks were trading mixed in the early trade on Thursday ahead of Rail Budget 2016 to be presented by Suresh Prabhu at 12.00 pm today.

9.45 am: Railway budget papers go through security check at Parliament.