Goa News |3 trains for Goa announced in Rly budget (By: GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI)

3 trains for Goa announced in Rly budget

GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 26 February 2013 15:05 IST

Perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian Railways, Goa has been showered with almost three local train services together in a railway budget, presented by railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today.

It includes Madgaon to Mangalore Express, Madgaon to Ratnagari passenger and Madgaon to Karwar DEMU service.

All are daily trains. There is no passenger fare hike announced in the budget.

DEMU means Diesel Electric Multiple Units, developed to give faster service with an average speed of fast mail or express trains.

The main features of DEMU are fast and frequent service, no need for reversals at the terminals as it can be driven from either end, high acceleration, low capital and maintenance costs, efficient use of rolling stock and electro-pneumatic Brakes.

Bansal, in his maiden budget, has announced introduction of 67 express trains, 26 passenger trains and eight DEMU services.

In addition, the Madgaon-Nizamuddin Express has also been extended up to Chandigarh.

The minister has also announced new IT-based initiatives to make passenger's job easy, including free Wi Fi service on some trains.

23.30 HRS E-TICKETING

One of the major initiative is to provide internet booking almost for 23 and half hours - from 0.30 to 23.30 hours.

The next immediate step, said the railway minister, would be to introduce Next Generation e-ticketing system, that supports 7200 tickets per minute as against 2000 tickets per minute today.

It will support 1.20 lakh simultaneous users at any point in time against the present capacity of 40,000 users, said Bansal.

In addition, e-ticketing through mobile phones would also be introduced, announced Bansal.

Passengers would also get SMS alerts on mobile phones, keeping them updated with reservation status.

TATKAL MADE EASY

Railway minister Bansal announced measures to curb malpractices in reserved tickets including Tatkal. These are:

: Mandatory carrying of ID cards by passengers with reserved tickets;

: Rigorous drive leading to prosecution of more than 1800 touts in the current year;

: In case of tatkal, reduction of advance reservation period to one day;

: Issue of tickets only on production of ID proof at PRS counters;

: Issue of only one Tatkal ticket per train per day to web service agents and

: Denial of access to agents to internet booking between 8 to 10 in the morning.

AADHAR CARD EVERYWHERE

The railway minister also announced his plan to use Aadhar card scheme to roll out a more efficient and people- sensitive Railway Services system.

The minister plans to utilise the Aadhar card database to facilitate the passenger service as well as the railway employees.

HIGHLIGHTS OF RAILWAY BUDGET

FULL RAILWAY BUDGET SPEECH

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3 trains for Goa announced in Rly budget

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