A 92 year old  tradition of a separate Railway budget has been broken by the Finance minister Arun Jaiteley by merging the same with the General budget.  This time Jaiteley has allocated more for the railways when compared to the previous budget. The overall railway budget for the fiscal year stands to be at Rs.1.31 lakh crore which an increment of Rs.10000 Crore of the  previous rail budget.

 Out of this Rs.1.31 Lakh crore Rs. 55,000 crore will be given to the Railways by the central government. In view of the series of train accidents occured, a separate fund would be set up with Rs.1 lakh crore which is called as the National Rail safety fund, announced the Finance Minister.The money from this fund will be used for maintaining Track and construction of unmanned level crossings and improvement of signal systems said Jaiteley.

 About 3,500 Km of new lines would be constructed for the fiscal year 2017-18.  The main aim of the railways is to monitor the safety of the passengers, development works, cleanliness, finance, accounting and bring in few reforms explained  Jaitely.

Other Salient features of the Railway Budget

Tickets booked through IRCTC will have no service Charge. Till now a service charge of Rs 20 and Rs.40 was being collected  for sleeper and AC class bookings respectively. With service charges being scrapped Railways will get a huge loss of Rs.500 crore.

Creating employment by bringing new Metro rail policy

Escalators and lifts would be set up at 500 Railway stations for Physically disabled

'Clean Mitra' a single window  would be set up for Complaints regarding the rail services

Special trains will be run for tourism and spiritual places

Fuel producing plant from the biodegradble waste would be set up at New Delhi and Jaipur

By 2019 biotoilets will be setup in all rail coaches