Big boost for Railways

News Gateway /  Big boost / New Delhi / 

Rail Budget 2018: Budget 2018 was presented today. Railway budget was also presented today by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament. Rail budget was presented along with India budget. In the budget 2018 India, the Modi government has come up with total Revenue receipts in 2018-19 and total Revenue expenditure in 2018-19. It has been learnt that total Revenue receipts for the Modi government in 2018-19 budget estimate (BE) is set to increase by 7% to Rs. 2,01,090 crore. On the other hand, total Revenue expenditure in 2018-19 BE is estimated to increase by 4% to Rs. 1,88,100 crore.

Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore has hailed the Rail Budget 2018. He said that this budget is set to usher in a new age for Indian Railways and lauded the government’s capex allocation of Rs.1,48,528 crore as a record. He said that this budget intends to progressively provide state of the art amenities along with Wi-Fi and CCTV coverage on all trains.

Recent reports ahead of Rail Budget 2018 showed that Railways enjoyed a great growth in revenue. The revenue of the railways was increased thanks to both passenger traffic as well as freight movement. The revenue from passenger fare was increased to Rs 37,134 crore between April-December 2017 2017. Notably, Rs 35,295 crore was earned during the corresponding period in 2016. The report also showed that revenue from freight went up to Rs 80,691 crore between April-December 2017. In the same period in 2016, Railways had earned Rs 76,288 crore.

Ahead of Rail budget 2018, Railways witnessed a hike of over 12 per cent in its cashless revenue stream. “The cashless revenue from reserved segment (e-ticket) has increased from 62.55 per cent in 2015-16 and 64.76 per cent in 2016-17 to around 76 per cent till August 28, 2017,” a railway ministry official said. “The online booked ticket constitute to about 64.5 per cent of total tickets (till August 28, 2017).”