Railway Budget Highlights

1. Marginal increase in passenger fares across the board. 

a. Hike of 10 paise per km for third AC passengers. 
b. Sleeper class 5 paise per km. 
c. First AC hiked by 20 paise per km. 
d. Platform ticket hiked to Rs 5. 
e. 2 paise per km hike for 2nd class suburban passengers. 
f. 2AC passengers to pay 15 paise more per km. 

2. The ministry aims to attract 10% of the Rs 20 lakh cr government expects to spend oninfrastructure during 12th Plan. 

3. 487 approved projects are at various levels of execution. 

4. 17 gauge conversion projects will be completed in FY 12-13. 

5. Rs 1102 cr for passenger amenities in FY 13 as compared to Rs 762 cr in previous year. 

6. Long Term Goals 

a. Plan to upgrade 19,000 kms of tracks in 5 years. 
b. To spend Rs. 63,212 cr on track modernization in next 5 yrs  
c. To create 100 stations through PPP route in 5 years.  
d. Total cost of signaling for five years is Rs 39,110 cr.  
e. To bring down operating ratio from 95% to 84.9% in FY13 and 74% at the end of 12th Plan. 

Platform Ticket 5 Rupees

 

Platform Ticket 5 rupees which is mandatory for visiting Railway station increased. Today Indian Railway budget was announced by Dinesh Trivedi in Parliament and it was like more frustrating than anything else. Because Platform Ticket was increased from 3 rupees to 5 rupees this will be the biggest mistake of Rail Budget 2012. Platform Ticket 5 rupees means alot to the common man seriously.

Dinesh Trivedi started with cool stuff initially by not announcing any ticket price hikes and new projects. But later on he revealed all the new hike’s which will be a big burden for common man in India. Increase in the Rail Budget 2012 especially on Platform Ticket 5 rupees, AC 3 tier, 2 tier and 1st class travelling will cost too much from now onwards.

Common man usually wont take platform tickets in rural areas like villages, smaller towns but what about the tier 2 cities and cities which will have heavy travellingeveryday. A 5 rupees increase on platform ticket will definitely boost the Railwayincome but its like cutting common pocket easily.

In India if you take travelling from Towns to Villages on a passenger train the ticket itself normally cost 2 – 5 rupees but from now onwards platform ticket itself costs 5 rupees. It might not be a big issue for urban living people but it will be a serious problem for those who regularly travel and drop their neighbors in railway stations.

Dinesh Trivedi did a big mistake by increasing platform ticket to 5 rupees from 3 rupees is useless. He would have put those 2 rupees margin in something else like wagons, cargo etc., but this increase in platform ticket 5 rupees will definitely let the current Rail budget 2012 a big thumbs down.

Initially the platform ticket was introduced to restrict the visitors to railway station, later on it became mandatory for security reasons also. But now it became an big benefit for Indian Railways. Increasing platform ticket 5 rupees will definitely create utter disappointment from common man.