Railway Budget: 3 per cent rail cess for speed and safety

New Delhi: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu’s maiden Budget on Thursday is likely to give a major thrust to “speed and safety”. Mr Prabhu is expected to unveil a safety cess of three per cent on fares as well as a plan to import 10 EMU sets for faster connectivity among metro cities.

With the Rail Budget prepared under the close watch of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is likely to make a pro-poor outreach too, and introduce “Bharat Gaurav AC Express trains”, with fares less than regular AC-3 ones, sources said. It is also likely that at least five more Sampark Kranti Expresses will be announced for Bihar, where Assembly elections are due later this year.

Prabhu may unveil a proposal to lay a new rail line linking Delhi and Agra, exclusively for passenger trains catering to tourists and commuters of the extended NCR region, sources said.

The Rail Budget may propse the import of 10 EMU train sets from Japan, to be deployed for faster passenger services on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Chennai-Bengaluru and New Delhi-Chandigarh sectors, the sources said. These trains will be able to clock up speeds of upto 150 kmph, and the Railways hope to run trains on these three routes at around 135 kmph without any major track changes, the sources added.

The Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, is likely to get a major manufacturing unit for safety equipment, that could give direct employment to 1,000 people and indirect work for 10,000 more, sources said.

On safety, Mr Prabhu is likely to unveil a dedicated all-woman security force within the Railway Protection Force to ensure better protection for women on trains. Ladies’ coaches on trains could get a "panic button", which if pressed would send alerts to loco-pilots, guards and the police.

With train mishaps increasing in recent years, suggesting errors by loco-pilots, Mr Prabhu is considering a plan to make train engines airconditioned. Also, Mr Prabhu may announce a proposal to decongest Mumbai by shifting the Western Railway and Central Railway headquarters to Ahmedabad and Pune respectively. The New Delhi-Anand Vihar connectivity is also on the cards, the sources said.