The Railway Budget for 2013-14 today spared passengers from any further hike in fares but raised various other charges on tickets along with freight tariff of less than 5%. Presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha, railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who had effected an across-the-board hike in passenger fares only last month, said he does not intend to pass on the impact of deregulation of diesel price for now and the Railways will absorb a burden of Rs. 850 crore on account of this.
He said this may result in an upward revision of freight tariff, effective from April 1, this year, by less than 5%.
The Budget proposes introduction of 67 new Express trains, 26 new passenger trains and extension of 57 others.
With regard to passenger amenities, the Budget proposes provision of free Wi-Fi facilities on several trains, progressive extension of bio-toilets on trains and induction of Next-Gen e-ticketing system capable of issuing 7,200 tickets per minute against 2,000 now.
As many as 1.2 lakh users can access tickets simultaneously under the proposed upgraded system against 40,000 now.
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