Live Highlights Rail Budget 2008

• Lalu Prasad begins fifth Rail Budget on lighter note
• Lalu hints at no fare hike this Budget
• More Garib Raths likely this year
• Fin min may scale down Rail budgetary support
• 150 more trains, escalators for Mumbai stations
• It will be 'please-all Budget', says Yashwant Sinha
• Himachal to launch agitation if ignored in Rail Budget
• Rail Budget to bring basket of comforts: Lalu
• Nitish urges Lalu to complete rail projects in Bihar
• Railway freight earnings go up by 12.34 per cent
• Aluminium coaches for goods trains soon
• People suspecting us can see records
• Railways will be linked by Mar '09 to call centres
• Display boards at railway stations
• Multi-purpose smart Mumbai cards to be introduced
• Ticket reservation possible from anywhere
• Railways profit due to UPA govt policies
• Additional Rs 20 bn earned on freight services
• Achieved 790 tonnes pay-load target
• Sitting companies given railway licences
• Increased passenger train numbers
• We have surcharged only in peak season
• Railways set up new profit records in 2007-08
• Rs 14,000 crore profit in loading
• Turned the Railways around into a profit-making organization
• Rs 49,250 crore invested in new projects
• Railways has done tremendous work
• Last year, railway profit ratio touched 76%
• Our achievements like an open book, everybody is happy
• Lalu: Customer is our God
• Lalu: Indian Railways is attaining popularity
• No ticket queues in 2 years
• In talks with foreign cos for new wagon designs
• Lifts and escalators at 50 stations
• High-level platforms in 135 stations
• Rs 40 bn kept for on discharge-free train toilets
• New coaches in all Rajdhani trains by 2010
• New coaches in Shatabdi trains by 2011
• Mulling ticket confirmation via mobile phone
• Plan to provide ticket booking via mobile phone
• Smart card system to all railways
• Electrification of more routes
• Raise platform levels in phased manner
• Railways to issue wait-listed e-tickets
• 50 big stations to have lifts, escalators
• Stainless steel coaches for mail, express trains
• Only stainless steel coaches to be produced after 2010
• To up auto ticket sale machines to 6,000 in 2 yrs
• Automated ticket vending machines at 250 now
• Upgradation of 203 medium-level platforms
• Upgradation of 281 low-level platforms
• New policy for wagon leasing
• Touch screen, colour TVs at railway stations
• Pvt cos can make terminals on rail land
• Electrification of more routes in North India
• CCTVs at major railway stations
• Heightened security at sensitive stations
• NDLS, Mumbai Cent, Secund'bad, Patna to become world-class
• All unmanned crossings to be manned now
• 16,548 old rail tracks to be renewed
• Ticket confirmation via mobiles likely
• Free season tickets for girl students till graduation
• SC,STs given more jobs than quota alloted to them
• Container train operators to be up to 50-55 trains
• Gangmen to man level crossings
• Mother Child Health Express to be started
• Staff benefit fund to be upped 10 times in 2009
• 50% concession for AIDS patients travelling in trains
• New rail coach manufacturing unit in Kerala
• N Railway hospital in Delhi to be fully AC
• Divisional railway hospitals in Jaipur, Hubli to be upgraded
• One more rail captive power plant in Bihar
• 10 more new Garib Raths, 53 new trains
• Coolies promoted to gangmen
• Amravati-Mumbai express new train bi-weekly
• Machhlipatnam-Bangalore new train tri-weekly
• New weekly Varanasi-Rameswaram express
• Khajuraho-Delhi new train tri-weekly
• New weekly Puri-Darbhanga express
• Indore-Udaipur via Ratlam new train tri-weekly
• Ranchi-Bhagalpur new train tri-weekly
• Chennai-Salem new train daily
• New daily Ahmedabad-Patan express
• New Itarsi-Katni passenger train daily
• Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani to run tri-weekly
• New train Amritsar-Kochuveli Express weekly
• New train Malda-Patna Express tri-weekly
• New train Saharsha- Janasebharan Expess weekly
• Special train between Pune-Delhi for Commonwealth in Oct
• 155 km new lines seen completed in FY08
• Bangalore-Coimbatore train extended to Ernakalum
• Varanasi-Ranchi via Rourkela train up to Sambhalpur
• Mathura-Lucknow train extended to Patna
• Bhubaneshwar-Mumbai express bi-weekly
• Proposal to spend Rs 6.5 bn on metro transport projects
• Proposal to spend Rs 17.3 bn on new lines
• Kurla to Howrah train bi-weekly
• Bagalkota-Jaswantpur train now daily
• Salsa-Amritsar Garib Rath tri-weekly
• New Delhi-Jammu Tawi train now daily
• TV, internet services on trains in future
• Pandemonium in Lok Sabha over train allocation
• Speaker asks Lalu to lay down Part 1 of speech
• MPs start walking out as Lalu continues
• Sleeper fare to be cut by 5%
• AC-I fares to be cut by 7%, AC-II by 4%, AC-III by 3%
• 5% reduction in 2nd class fares beyond 50 km