Railway Budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 has been presented by Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu On 25th February 2016.

Highlights of Railway Budget:

  • No hike in passenger fares.
  • Action has been initiated on 139 budget announcements made last year.
  • Eliminate all unmanned level crossings by 2020.
  • Swacch Bharat: 17000 biotoilets and additional toilets in 475 stations before the close of this financial year.
  • Increased quota for senior citizens and women travellers this year.
  • Wifi at 100 stations this year and 400 stations next year.
  • Enhanced capacity of e-ticketing system from 2,000 tickets/min to 7,200/min. Supporting 1.2 lakh concurrent users now, as opposed to 40,000 earlier.
  • All major stations to be brought under CCTV surveillance in a phased manner.
  • Deen Dayal coaches for long distance trains for unreserved passengers. These coaches will include potable water and higher number of mobile charging points.
  • IRCTC to manage catering service in phased manner. Local cuisine of choice will be made available to passengers.
  • Cleaning of toilets by requests through SMS.
  • Children’s menu, baby foods, baby boards to be made available for travelling mothers.
  • GPS-based digital display in coaches for showing upcoming stations.
  • Will open cancellation facility through 139 helpline number.
  • Introduce bar-coded tickets on pilot basis to tackle menace of ticketless travel.

For Unreserved Passenger:

  • Antyodaya Express – A long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service to be operated on dense routes.
  • Two to four Deen Dayalu coaches will be introduced in some long distance trains for unreserved travel to enhance our carrying capacity for the masses.

For the reserved passenger – Humsafar, Tejas and UDAY:

  • Humsafar – Fully air-conditioned third AC service with an optional service for meals.
  • Tejas – Will showcase the future of train travel in India by operating at speeds of 130 kmph and above, it will offer onboard services such as entertainment, local cuisine, Wi-Fi, etc.
  • UDAY – Utkrisht DoubleDecker Air-conditioned Yatri (UDAY) Express on the busiest routes, expected to increase carrying capacity by almost 40%.