Railway Budget in 2 minutes

• New series of fast trains 'Sampark Kranti Express' to be introduced connecting states to the national capital
• First of the Sampark Kranti Express from Delhi to Bangalore on 8th February
• 17 other Sampark Kranti Expresses will cover other cities including Tiruvananthpuram, Lucknow, Guwahati, Secunderabad, Samastipur, Durg, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Mumbai, Jabalpur, Madurai and Jodhpur
• Sampark Kranti Express also to Bhubaneswar, Chitrakoot, Kathgodam, Kolkata, Madgaon, Udhampur
• The new fast trains will initially run tri-weekly, it will be made daily from October 2
• Unreserved ticketing system to be extended
• A pilot project of e-ticketing to be started on select Shatabdi express trains
• Train reservations through mobile telephones to be introduced
• Information about delayed departure of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains to be made available through short messaging (SMS) "" pilot project announced for Delhi

SAFETY

• 14 projects under technology mission on Railway safety approved
• Ministry of Railways, ministry of human resources development and ministry of industries to jointly work out the modalities of the projects
• The projects will be in the field of traction and rolling stock, track and bridges, signal communications and fog vision instrumentation. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and Railway Design and Safety Organisation will also work on these four mission programmes
• Anti Collision Division (ACD) provisioning on 1736 kilometers launched. ACD on remaining broad guage sections to be provided in the next five years
• Special Rail Safety Fund outlay for 2003-04 enhanced from Rs 2,311 crore to Rs 2,351 in RE
• Number of train accidents per year per million train kilometers to be brought down from 0.44 in 2002-03 to 0.30 over the next four years. Railways Act and Railway Protection Act amended to entrust Railway Protection Force (RPF) with the additional responsibility of passenger safety
• RPF given the power to conduct enquiry and prosecute in cases of small offences from July 1
• Meetings with states to discuss security related issues to be held on January 15 every year

PROJECTS

• Execution and completion of projects sanctioned on socio-economic considerations, connecting remote and backward areas to be speeded in the next five years
• Rehabilitation of 1350 bridges out of the target 2700 bridges to be completed this financial year
• Signaling installations to be replaced in 444 stations this year
• Track renewal of 8500 km to be completed by year end
• Revised estimates 2003-04 provide a Rs 500 crore outlay for Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd
• Jammu-Udhampur New Line Project will opened to traffic on 25 March
• Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana with an additional outlay of Rs 20,000 crore set up to speed up socio economic projects

TARIFFS

FREIGHT

• No change in freight rates
• Freight traffic target of 570 million tonnes for this year. Hike of 20 million tonnes over 2003-04

FARES

• No change in passenger fares
• 3.2 per cent growth in passenger traffic projected
• Projected receipts from passenger fares is Rs 14,200 crore

FINANCES

• Plan outlay Rs 13,425 crore, of which Budgetary support is Rs 4,544 crore, market borrowing Rs 3,050 crore, Special Railway Safety Fund Rs 2,795 crore, Railway Safety Fund Rs 401 crore, internal resources Rs 2,635 crore
• Rs 1,000 crore expenditure planned by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, of which Rs 300 crore will be raised from the market
• Gross traffic receipts estimated at Rs 44,482 crore
• Total working expenses of Rs 41,250 crore of which ordinary working expenses of Rs 32,960 crore
• Depreciation reserve fund to get Rs 1,900 crore
• Pension fund to appropriate Rs 6,390 crore, Rs 300 crore more than RE for 2003-04
• Dividend payment proposed at Rs 3,305 crore
• Deferred dividend of Rs 300 crore to be paid this year