#RailBudget2016: Five Highlights That Will Impact Indian Cities

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu presented his second Rail Budget in the Parliament today (February 25). The Railway Budget 2016 aims to fulfil the long-drawn demands of the common man, which includes reserved accommodation on trains on-demand, time-tabled freight trains, high-end technology to improve safety record, elimination of all unmanned level crossings, improved punctuality, higher speed of freight trains, semi-high speed trains running along the Golden Quadrilateral, zero direct discharge of human waste, by 2020.

PropGuide lists five key highlights of the Railway Budget 2016 which will impact our cities in particular and the urban scene in general.

• With an aim to decongest and reduce pollution in the national capital, the Indian Railways will partner with the Delhi government to revive the ring-railway system along 21 stations.

• On suburban traffic, the minister said in-principle approval for Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III had been received. He said tenders will be awarded soon for elevated suburban corridors between Churchgate-Virar and between CST-Panvel.

• Prabhu said a new investment framework will be launched for developing suburban systems in partnership with state governments of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

• The minister emphasised that 35 kms tunnelling out of a total of 95 kms of the Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project had been completed. He said that decongestion work along the Jalandhar-Jammu line was in full swing and the doubling of two bridges would be commissioned by March 2016, while the other two bridges would be completed in the upcoming fiscal.

• The minister highlighted Cabinet approval to joint ventures with state governments and also pointed out that 17 projects had got the go-ahead and six memorandum of understanding (MOUs) had been signed with various state governments. Forty-four new partnership works covering about 5,300 km to the tune of Rs 92,714 crore had been indicated in the Budget documents.