Railway Budget 2016

—Trains will be 95% punctual by 2020.

—Connecting the North East with the rest of India is a priority. To this end, the government opened a broad gauge Lumding-Silchar section in Assam, to extend train connectivity to the Barak Valley. Agartala has been brought under the broad gauge network and Mizoram and Manipur will be connected to the broad gauge network with the Kathakal-Bhairabi and the Arunachal-Jiribam projects.

—Work on the ambitious Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link goes on. 35km of tunnelling out of 95km completed. The important Jalandhar-Jammu line will be fully decongested by next year.

—For ease of access for customers, the Railways will set up a dedicated IVRS system to seek feedback. Retiring rooms can be booked online for transit travellers on an hourly basis. Also mobile charging points are now available even in general class coaches.

—The Senior Citizen quota per coach will go up by 50%, which will mean almost 120 new lower berths per train for senior citizens. There will also be more reserved middle bays for the safety of women passengers. Apart from this, 33% reservation to women in the reserved quota will be introduced.

—Free WiFi services will be implemented at 100 stations this year, and at 400 more stations by 2018.

—The Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express uses the world’s first bio-vacuum toilet. There will be 17,000 new bio-toilets this year, as well as new toilets at 475 stations. You will be able to get toilets cleaned by sending an SMS, called the ‘Clean My Coach’ service.

—Overnight double-decker trains called Uday Expresses will be introduced. The Railway Ministry had introduced the Sarathi Seva in Konkan Railway to provide old and specially abled passengers with assistance at stations. This will be expanded to more stations. Under this, now passengers will be able to book battery operated cars and porter services as well. Specially-abled-friendly toilets at A1 class stations will also be provided. A new train called Humsafar Express was announced with fully-airconditioned third AC service with an operational service for meals.

—To help travelling mothers, a special children’s menu will be made available on trains on a pilot basis. This will include baby foods, hot milk and hot water, as well as changing boards for babies in train toilets.

—A high-tech network of 20,000 screens across 2,000 stations called the Rail Display Network will enable real-time flow of information to passengers.

—Passenger amenities and beautification of stations will be undertaken at pilgrimage centres like Ajmer, Amritsar, Bihar Sharif, Chengannur, Dwarka, Gaya, Haridwar, Mathura, Nagapattinam, Nanded, Nasik, Pali, Parasnath, Puri, Tirupati, Vailankanni, Varanasi and Vasco. A new service called the Aastha Circuit trains to connect important pilgrim centres.