Interim Railway Budget 2009-10 presented

Union Railway Minister Lalu Yadav presented the Interim Railway Budget 2009-10 on Friday in Parliament. It is the sixth consecutive Railway budget presented by Lalu Yadav.

Lalu declared cut of two per cent on all the fares and this a gift for the passengers. Lalu is know for the is populace budget and in this budget also he kept interest of common people. He said that the railway has earned surplus of Rs 90 thousand crores in five years.

24 new trains to be started and and the major declaration in the budget was the concept of bullet train. Minister said that feasibility over six bullet trains was being considered and a bullet train between Delhi to Patna may be the outcome in near future. It is the role of Lalu since 2004, he turned Railway corporation into a profit making institute.

Highlights of Interim Railway Budget:

• Railways to invest Rs 35,900 cr in '09
• Rs 10,500 cr kept aside to meet pension requirements
• Implementation of 6th Pay Commission to hike expense by Rs 13,500cr
• There has been a steep fall in container traffic
• Passenger growth up 14 per cent
• Passenger trains to have 22 per cent more capacity
• To hike efficiency of passenger and goods wagons
• Goods trains to have 78 per cent more capacity
• Steps to have railway connectivity to Kashmir initiated
• Rail accidents have fallen from 325 to 194 in past 5 yrs
• Railways to invest Rs 2.3 lakh cr over next 5 years
• Accidents have declined considerably
• Electrification of 1000 Km of rail lines completed in '08-'09
• Wagon production to be hiked from 6600 to 15000 per year
• Four Railway enquiry call centres set up
• 8 pc fright growth in past 5 years
• Railways in Nov '08 got 10 cr dollar loan at 4%