Railway Budget 2013-14: New Plans and Schemes

Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented the Union Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Lok Sabha on 26 February 2013. Some of the New Plans and Schemes proposed in Railway Budget 2013-14 are as under:

• Proposal for setting up of Railway Tariff Regulatory Authority formulated and at inter-ministerial consultation stage.
• To provide a memorable experience to the visitors especially the children, a revamp plan will be rolled out for National Railway Museum in 2013-14.
• To create a corpus for meeting IR’s committed liabilities for debt servicing of JICA and World Bank loans taken for the DFC Project, it is proposed to set up a new Debt Service Fund.
• In order to meet the growing demand, 72 additional services in Mumbai and 18 in Kolkata are being introduced. Besides, rake length is being increased from 9 cars to 12 cars for 80 services in Kolkata and 30 services in Chennai.
• A target to complete 500 km of new lines has been set for 2013-14.
• There is target to convert 450 km of MG/NG lines to broad gauge during 2013-14.
• Announcement of  resumption of work on new line projects of Chickmagalur - Sakleshpur and Bengaluru - Satyamangalam, which were pending for want of resources and other mandatory clearances, after State Government of Karnataka agreed to give land free of cost and bear 50% of the cost.