Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav presented the Indian Railway Budget for 2008-09 in Parliament on Tuesday.

Rail Budget 08-09 at a Glance. Here we present some highlights from this year's Railway Budget.

"We are scoring goal after goal in every match. Every child in the country will now say "Chak de, Railways" ... We have not only dreamed but turned the dreams in to reality. Mungeri lal ke haseen sapne have been turned into reality and are being implemented."
- Railways minister Lalu Prasad Yadav

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's Railway Budget Speech 2008-09 Coverage. (PDFs are available for downloads in both English and Hindi. Visit this link for more info)

Now with elections next year and a much larger cash surplus than ever before, Indian Railwyas minister Lalu prasad yadav responded with a railway budget that was good not only for poor of the country but for almost everyone. The Railway Minister on Tuesday announced cuts in passenger fares, better jobs for coolies and enhanced ticketing options, while refusing to hike freight rates.

Indian Railways performance in year 2007-08.

• For year 2007-08 Net Revenue expected at Rs. 18,416 cr and surplus after payment of dividend expected at Rs.13,534 cr.
• Both Growth in passenger earnings and expected growth in goods earnings of 14%.
• Most importently double digit growth in traffic earnings was maintained in first nine months of previous year.

Indian Railways Budget estimates for Year 2008-09

• Freight loading target for this year is project at 850 million tones.
• Revenues in Freight earnings to be Rs.52,700 cr and Passenger earnings to be Rs.21,681 cr for comming year is targeted.
• Cash surplus before Dividend to be Rs.24,783 cr after making an ad-hoc provision of nearly Rs.5000 cr for anticipated recommendations of the VI Central Pay Commission.

Indian Railways Annual Plan 2008-09

With over more than Rs. 25,000 Cr. cash surplus Indian Railways minister lalu prasad has unveiled highest ever annual investment plan of Rs 37,500 crore during year 2008-09. While presenting the budget to the parliament he said "Under this plan priority has been given to enhancement of rail capacity, modernisation of the railway, throughput enhancement on high capacity routes, traffic facility work as and expansion and development of the network"

Other major improvements in annual plan includes Track renewal of Rs.3,600 cr; Bridges renovation and maintenance at Rs. 600 cr; Signal & Telecommunication works worth Rs.1,520 cr; Budget for Road over/under bridges of Rs. 700 cr and manning of unmanned level crossings at Rs.600 cr.

Indian Railways budget 08-09 Charts, Facts & Figures.

Bar 1: '06-07 Actual Bar 2: '07-08 (Budget) Bar 3: 07-08 (Revised) Bar 4: '08-09 (Budget)

Graphs and Information on Railways Budget

Detailed information and complete coverage of Indian Railways budget

Rail Budget 2008-09 Glimpses.

1. Passenger fares are slashed in new railway budget including 7% reduction in AC First Class to fight competition from low cost airlines. AC second Class fares are cut by 4% and 5% discount on 2nd class in Mail & Express trains is announced.
2. 10 new garib raths and 53 new Trains are announced. Few routes are extended and frequency increased. Bihar gets 16 new trains.
3. Proposed improvements in Indian Railways - New joy ride for passengers.
4. Indian Railways posts record $6.3Billion surplus.
5. Indian Railways reduces freight rates on oil traffic by 5%.
6. Rs. 5000 cr is allocated for implementing pay commission report.
7. Indian Railways present highest-ever annual plan of Rs. 37,500 cr.
8. Indian Railways targets 100% jump in cement transportation by 2011-12.
9. Free Travel for girl students up to graduation.
10. Vision 2025 to be Finalised within Six Months to lay Foundation for Resurgent Railways.
11. Booking of Rail Tickets Through Mobile Phones
12. New Railway Coach Factory in Kerala

Indian Railways has decided to start a new joint venture company with a private sector player to start a new locomotive factory near Marhowra in Bihar in near future. Indian Railways plans to buy at least one-third of its requirement of diesel locomotives from this new joint venture unit. This new joint venture unit controlled by a private sector firm will produce only diesel locomotives and other spares related to diesel locomotive technology and needs of Indian Railways.

The RFQ guarantees that the railways will buy atleast 100 locomotives a year for the next seven to 10 years from the Marhowra facility. It also expects to acquire another 250 diesel locomotives a year from the state-owned Diesel Locomotive Works in Varanasi and other locomotive works and IR factories all across India.

E- Ticket

How to book?

To book your e-ticket, log in at www.irctc.co.in and select the e-ticket option.

 Indian railways now has an e ticketing facility. Book your ticket, pay using Visa or Mastercard and simply print the ticket or ERS (Electronic Reservation slip) on your own computer.
Carry it with you along with your stated ID and you're on the train!!

IR accepts the following as valid ID

Voter Identity Card

Passport

PAN card

Driving License

Central/ state Govt issued Photo ID card.

 

When you are travelling

~ You must carry the proper identity card as given during booking.

~ Your  name must be on the reservation chart.

~ You must carry a platform ticket with him.

As yet this is a limited service but hopefully this will be extended as thing progress.
At present only confirmed / RAC tickets can be booked through e-Reservation,

For more info see here E-tickets http://www.irctc.co.in/e-Ticketing.htm

To book you'll have to register here Online Booking (tip : the online booking form demands a zip code and will only except a 6 digit Indian type pin code, make one up or copy from the net, it works no problem just a glitch in the booking form)

 

Important note

- You will be treated as ticketless and not be authorised to board the train if your/ the passenger's name does not appear on the chart.

-e-tickets will be available only for confirmed/ RAC tickets at this point of time.

-If the status is WL (neither Confirmed nor RAC) at the time of booking, the ticket will not be booked.

 - A fine of Rs 50 on forgetting ERS

 

Lalu Prasad Yadav wants Indian Railways to TOP

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad wants the indian railway service to be the best service of its kind all around the world. And to achieve their target work already has began.
 
Mr Prasad, inaugurated the Ratlam-Neemuch broad gauge line. Undenighingly after earning a profit of Rs20,000 crores and bring limping indianrailways back on track. Further emphasis is being put up by laloo prasad yadav on expanding railway business under which the Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor Project will  likely becompleted at a cost of Rs 30,000 crore within the  approximate time limit of five years.

Eanhancement of goods capacity has been given a lot of priority by the indian railways according to the new plan.  The new Eastern Corridor would run from Ludhiana to Howrah while its western counterpart would run from New Delhi to Mumbai.

The corridors have separate electrified up and down tracks for the better functioning and working of the goods trains. According to Laloo Prasad Yadav reight corridors will be constructed between Mumbai-Chennai and Chennai-Howrah.

 

The Indian railway-run cyber cafe at Western Railway's Mumbai Central Station is the first ever cyber cafe in a railway station in India. It not only provides Internet facilities in the Indian railway platform it also helps the poeple using it and see if they want to use it for obtaining tickets.

Indian Railways' first -- and Mumbai's first -- railway station cyber cafe at Western Railway's Mumbai Central station was inaugrated by RailTel, a PSU of the Ministry of Indian Railways. Nearly 12 lakhs was expenditure by the general manager in the station . It is projected that there will be more than 12 cybercafes in upcomming days in the stations in the upcomming financial year.

The current project consists 82 railway stations including Churchgate, Bandra, Borivali, Boisar, Vapi, Valsad, Surat, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Indore, and Ujjain along the Western railway route; and Dadar, Lonavala, Pune, and Nagpur along the Central railway route are included in the first wave of implementation.

The cyber cafes are meant not only for earning additional revenue for the railways but also for providing passengers with better facilities as mentioned by the staff. It is likely to reduce queues and promote online reservation thus getting more ease to the passengers.

About 500 railway stations in the country are projected to have have wi-fi in the near future too by Railtel.

 New Delhi RAIL YATRI NIWAS

 The facility of Rail Yatri Niwas is available to rail passengers on advance reservation could be done by sending full amount of the required accommodation by money order in the name of Chief Manager. Rail Yatri Niwas, at New Delhi Railway Station or demand draft in favor of FA & CAO/ Northern Railway.

For more information on this please contact the phone numbers given below. 

(Checkout / Check in time: 9 AM)

Important Phone Numbers

01011- 23233484

02011- 23233561

 

 

RAILWAY YATRI NIWAS: HOWRAH KOLKATA

Tel: 2660-1742/43
AC double Rs. 350. NAC double Rs. 250. NAC 3 bedded Rs. 275.
53 bedded dormitory Rs. 75 per head.
For holders of tickets for 200 km. at least.

 Advance Booking:

 Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation Ltd.

3, Koilaghat Street (Ground Floor), Kolkata - 700 001

Phone: 033 - 22439045     Fax: 033 - 22439046

 RAILWAY YATRI NIWAS UJJAIN      STATION ROAD                                 TEL :91-734      2555454     

Neelkanthi Krishna Dham Yatri Niwas. Haryana Tourism

With an area of 2 acres, it is around 154 kilometres from Delhi and lies in the district of Kurukshetra. , a few kms from the Railway Station.

Tel: 01744 31615 

 Kerela Tourism Tourism Yatri Niwas go the link below

www.hotelskerala.com/ktdc/yatrinivasthrissur.htm