India Inc hailed the Railway Bugdet on Monday as promising and said measures, especially those on containers and freight services, will not only help the industry but benefit the general public as well.
Opposition, including Bharatiya Janata Party, Left and other parties, on Tuesday walked out of the Lok Sabha, charging the government with indulging in one scam after another and saying they would not be party to the passage of the Finance Bill and the Railway Budget.
India's railway will borrow Rs 151.03 billion ($2.80 billion) from markets for the financial year 2013/2014.
The Rail Budget is full of hollow promises, the Congress leader said.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor were also present with the PM as he interacted with the students inside the train.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a final call on whether to break the tradition of presenting a separate Rail Budget, by merging it with the General Budget.
The Annual Plan for Railway for 2012-13 is put at highest ever Rs 60,100 crore (Rs 601 billion).
Railways' freight loading traffic has been scaled down by 100 million tonnes from 1025 million tonnes because of economic slowdown, the minster said.
The Lok Sabha on Monday approved the Rail budget for 2011-12 after Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee assured the House of effecting measures to ensure availability of adequate coaches and wagons in the coming years.
Passenger tariff structure will be rationalised so that that the fares of AC first class and AC second class will be 11.5 times and 6.5 times the second-class fares, respectively.
Private participation in the pilgrim sector will also be encouraged, Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda said while presenting Rail Budget 2014-15.
He said the budget is a watershed moment for Railways.
Disposable linen in Rajdhani trains, automatic closing doors in Shatabdi and fire suppression system in passenger coaches are some of the proposals set to be announced in the Rail Budget 2014-15.
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Most of the railway-related stocks, which had seen smart gains in the past few days ahead of the Rail Budget, saw profit-booking as Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda presented the Budget.
Railway investment in the 12th Plan to be Rs 7.35 lakh crore
Improvement in passenger amenities and better interiors would also figure in the budgetary proposals.
As far as rolling stock programme is concerned, the announcement will be made for manufacturing of 4200 new coaches including 600 LHB coaches in the Rail Budget.
After presenting his first railway budget, Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said he was not for populism but wanted to be "realistic" to ensure that the national transporter thrives for the people of the country.
He noted that the diesel price hike has put an additional burden of Rs 3,300 crore on Railways.
Indicating that the exit of Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister was only a matter of time, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday said its priority was to ensure a "complete rollback" of the fare hike announced in the rail budget. "Our priority is complete rollback of the hike. How the government does it, only they have to decide. They can do it after the discussion on the rail budget or before that. It is only the government which will have to decide," said Sudip Bandopadhyay.
In a Women's Day gift, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced free monthly seasonal tickets -- for local travel -- to girls till their college level education.
Mamata appealed to business houses to join hands for building partnership with the Railways.
The railways is firming up plans to set up a traction motor factory in Vidisha and a wagon workshop in Visakhapatnam with an aim of stepping up its manufacturing activities in line with the 'Make in India' campaign.
The finance minister may stagger some of the recommendations.
The Minister of Railways, Lalu Prasad has announced reduction in passenger fares for non sub-urban mail/express and ordinary passenger trains by one rupee for fares costing up to fifty rupees per passenger.
The Rail Budget will announce introduction of AC suburban trains in Mumbai.
Chaos is expected to return to Parliament on Wednesday with the Opposition prepped to target Education Minister Smriti Irani in both Houses.
Chaos is expected to return to Parliament on Wednesday with the Opposition prepped to target Education Minister Smriti Irani in both Houses.
The Indian Railways will develop few stations which will be at par with global standard.
The national transporter is also mulling a hike in passenger fares in the Rail Budget next year to tide over the loss in passenger sector
The next Rail Budget to be presented early next year could contain a proposal for raising fares to pass on the burden of rising power cost to passengers.
Though there was no fare hike proposal in the Rail Budget this time, passengers will have to cough up more for travelling on new trains with added facilities in the coming days.
The Railway Minister has announced that there is an urgency to attract FDI in Railway projects.
As part of the housekeeping scheme, there will be attendants in each coach to address problems related to hygiene like maintaining clean toilets and keeping coaches spick-and-span.
The price stabilisation fund will call for processing capacity for perishables.
The projects include commissioning of new lines, gauge conversion and doubling of existing tracks in certain busy stretches.
There would be a marginal 3% increase in freight rates.
The 30-share Sensex ended at 26,100 mark up by 138 points and the 50-share Nifty closed at 7,787 mark up by 36 points.
Presenting the Interim Railway Budget for 2014-15, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday announced that new trains will be introduced.
Railways Minister Sadananda Gowda will present his maiden Rail Budget on July 8 in Parliament.
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