The Railway Minister has however kept both the passenger as well as the freight fares unchanged.Meanwhile, the Railway Budget presentation was cut short as Parliament was adjourned till 2pm due to interruptions caused by MPs protesting creation of Telangana. Four Union ministers from Seemandhra had stormed into well of the House along with other members over Telangana.
.The new trains announced by Kharge include 17 premium trains, 38 express trains, 10 passenger trains and 7 other trains.
In what could bring a new dimension to railways’ customer services, Kharge proposed to introduce dynamic pricing for premium trains on a larger scale for passengers with confirmed tickets. This would mean a customer could pay a premium over tatkal charges and get a confirmed ticket for travel on trains like the Rajdhani Expess.
“During the year we completed 1,532km of new lines, doubling and gauge conversion against a revised target of 1,525km, “ said Kharge in the Lok Sabha.
While the minister spoke of opportunities for private investment in railways he did not elaborate on whether the target of mobilization of Rs.6,000 crore through public-private partnerships was achieved or not.
The railways raised Rs.937 crore though monetization of rail land, close to the budget estimate of Rs.1,000 crore.
Kharge added that the government was in the process of setting up the Rail Tariff Authority to advise the government on fixing of fares and freight. The move was first proposed by then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi in railway budget for 2012-13.
The national transporter has completed building an 11.2km long tunnel between Banihal and Qazigund, a part of the project that connects the Kashmir valley to the rest of India, the minister said. He also said that states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya would soon be connected through the railway network before March.
Touching on the proposals to introduce high-speed trains, Kharge said that he expected the feasibility study for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor to be completed in 2015. He also said that the railways intended to explore low-cost operations for raising speeds to 160-200kmph on existing routes such as Delhi-Agra and Delhi-Chandigarh.
