While presenting the Railway Budget at the Parliament on Thursday, Minister Suresh Prabhu said the Indian Railways looked forward to meet the long-felt desires of the common man.
These include --
- reserved accommodation on trains available on demand,
- timetabled freight trains with credible service commitments,
- high-end technology to significantly improve safety record,
- elimination of all unmanned level crossings,
- punctuality increased to almost 95 per cent,
- increased average speed of freight trains to 50 kmph and Mail/Express trains to 80 kmph,
- semi high speed trains running along the golden quadrilateral and zero direct discharge of human waste.
The minister said the Railways must provide to the citizens of this country a rail system that they can be proud of -- a system free from capacity constraints, efficient and predictable, sparkling and pristine, where the people of the country feel at ease, where there is plenty of choice in every sphere of activity, and the ease of doing business pervades the entire railway ecosystem.
In short, a system that is capable of taking care of its own needs financially and otherwise, the minister added.
Prabhu said he was thankful to the various committees, including the committee chaired by Bibek Debroy, whose recommendations informed their vision.
Text: Kind courtesy, Press Information Bureau
Image: Passengers travel in an overcrowded train near a railway station at Loni in Uttar Pradesh, February 23, 2016. Photograph: Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters
