From no service charge on tickets to passenger safety: Key highlights of Railway Budget 2017-18

The Government of India for the first time presented the Railway Budget 2017-18 with its Union Budget 2017-18 on Wednesday. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2017-18 and Railway Budget 2017-18 in Lok Sabha in New Delhi.

It was for the first time that the government merged both budgets and announced a combined budget on February 1. Moreover, this time it has advanced the date of announcement of Union Budget which was earlier scheduled at last working day of February.

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Here are the key highlights Railway Budget 2017-18: 

1. For 2017-18, the total capital and development expenditure of Railways pegged at Rs 1,31,000 crore. These includes Rs 55,000 crore provided by the Government. 

2. Railways will focus on four major areas in the current year:

 (a) Passenger safety 
 (b) Capital and development works 
 (c) Cleanliness 
 (d) Finance and accounting reforms 

3. Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh created with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of five years.

4. Unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge lines will be eliminated by 2020.

5. Expert international assistance will be harnessed to improve safety preparedness and maintenance practices.

6. In the next three years, the throughput is proposed to be enhanced by 10%. This will be done through modernisation and upgradation of identified corridors.

7. Railway lines of 3,500 kilometres will be commissioned in 2017-18, as against 2,800 kilometers in 2016-17.

8. 500 stations will be made differently abled friendly by providing lifts and escalators.

9. It is proposed to feed about 7,000 stations with solar power in the medium term. 

10. It is now proposed to introduce ‘Coach Mitra’ facility, a single window interface, to register all coach related complaints and requirements. 

11. Railways will implement end to end integrated transport solutions for select commodities through partnership with logistics players, who would provide both front and back end connectivity. 

12. By 2019, all coaches of Indian Railways will be fitted with bio toilets. 

13. Service charge on e-tickets booked through IRCTC has been withdrawn.

14. The tariffs of Railways would be fixed, taking into consideration costs, quality of service, social obligations and competition from other forms of transport. 

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