Railway Budget: A Brief Summary
The Indian railways have one of the largest networks of trains in the
world and since the first rail from Bombay to Thane stated in 1853,
Indian railways has come a long way. Indian railways carry many lakh
passengers daily from one place to another place. The ministry of
railways controls the government of India. Every year the ministry of
railways presents the railway budget in the parliament. The Budget is
presented two days before the general budget. It has to be passed by the
Lok Sabha before it is accepted. The rail budget deals with the
improvement in the existing trains and contains details of the new
trains. It also says about the passenger fares and tarries to be levied.
Points Mentioned in the Railway Budget
Though the railway budget is presented separately, figures of income
and expenditure is shown in the general budget. The railway budget also
tells about the income generated from the previous year and the
expectations from the coming year. It talks about new stations,
passenger amenities, tarries on parcel and goods and many more. Recently
the government is facing stiff competition from the low cost airlines.
So the budget aims to draw more and more passengers.
In the previous few years, before the UPA government, railways were
facing heavy losses. But thanks to the policies of the current railway
minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav, Indian railways are on a roll. Recently
Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav has presented the Railway budget of 2008-09.
Highlights of Rail Budget 2008
Some of the highlights of the rail budget 2008 were:
Improvements in ticketing
