Highlights of Railway Budget

Highlights of Railway Budget (This is a copy paste stuff)

There will be no increase in the passenger fares of any class or category of trains. Freight tariffs will also remain the same for 2010-11. Service charges for e-tickets and freight charges for food-grains will be reduced. This was announced by the Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Kumari Mamata Banerjee in Parliament today (February 24, 2010) while presenting Railway Budget for the new financial year. The highlights of the Railway Budget are:

· No increase in passenger fares and freight tariffs

· Service charges on e-tickets reduced

· E-ticket vans to be extended to Government Medical College Hospitals, Courts, Universities, IT hubs, IITs and IIMs

· SMS updates of reservation status and movement of wagons

· Ticket centres to be opened at district headquarters and village panchayats

· 100% concession for cancer patients alongwith an escort

· Modern luggage trolleys with uniformed attendants to assist senior citizens and women passengers

· Six clean bottling plants to provide cheaper, clean drinking water to passengers

· 12 companies of women RPF personnel, ‘Mahila Vahini’, for the security of women passengers

· No examination fee for women, minority and economically backward class candidates for Railway Recruitment Boards’ exams

· Question papers now will be made available in local state languages besides Hindi, Urdu and English, examinations will be held on the same day in all regions

· 117 new train projects to be flagged off by the end of March 2010

· 52 long distance express trains and 28 passenger trains to be introduced

· Frequency of 12 trains will be increased and 21 trains will be extended

· Special trains to mark Rabindranath Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary, for ladies, for uniformed persons and for tourists

· Double-decker coaches to be introduced in two trains each from Delhi and Kolkata

· 94 stations to be upgraded as Adarsh Stations, 10 more stations to be upgraded as World Class Stations

· Automatic fire and smoke detection system to be introduced in 20 trains

· All the unmanned Level Crossings (LCs) to be manned within five years

· Rs.41,426 crore outlay proposed, allocation for new lines increased to Rs.2,848 crore from Rs.4,411 crore

· More money to improve passenger amenities – Rs.1,302 crore in comparision to Rs.923 crore in 2009-10

· Railway revenue through branding/advertising to go up from Rs.150 crore to Rs.1,000

· Special Task Force to clear investment proposals within 100 days

· Concession in freight charges for food-grains and domestic use kerosene

· Kisan Vision Project for manufacturing refrigerated containers

· Allotment of iron ore rakes would be accessible through the web. RFID technology to be introduced for tracking of wagons

· Multi-level parking complexes through PPP route

· 93 new multi-functional complexes to be developed

· National High Speed Rail Authority proposed to plan high

speed rail corridor

· Houses for all rail employees in next 10 years

· 522 hospitals, 50 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 10 residential schools, model degree colleges, technical and management institutes for railway employees

V for Victory

I am writing this post after a 3rd day of my marriage will post it later. I am sitting on my bed looking back at the things how they unfolded in front of me. It wasn't easy as our parents were against the marriage in the beginning. But then it was like a puzzle for both of us which we together solved and made everybody agreed. One of our common friend called me today and said that loving somebody is easy but marrying that somebody is difficult. I know how correct this statement is as there were so many obstructions. But gradually we fixed all of them one by one and now looking ahead for a wonderful future. I feel like I have won a war.

There are so many gifts in my room which are still to be unpacked:)

Life in a camp-II

So I am continuing from where I left in the last post. There were so many incidence from that camp, I want to write about but don't want this post to be long.

The last night in the camp was very unusual. We were all told to sleep early, we thought Wow, no hard work tonight. But in the middle of the night as we were all sleeping peacefully, we heard a loud alarm went off. Some people were yelling "Run-Run, Fire", we actually got shocked and ran towards the crowd. Some people hid themselves in bathrooms and locked it from inside. Everywhere its chaos. Our group ran in one direction and found out at the end that it was a prank and the instructors were watching us that how we behave in such conditions. We all got surprised and gathered in a compound, there was a stage and in the middle of the night they have organized a concert in which famous singers were present. We sang and dance with them. Overall, those 10 days were memorable and a nice experience.

PS: I am getting married in 4 days, I don't know why I am writing about this. There are so many other things to think about.

Life in a camp

I don't know why I am writing this, just remembering few events from the past. Long time ago, when I completed my schooling and about to take admission in college, I attended a camp in the outskirts of Delhi. It was a 10 days camp in which I have to spend these 10 days with lots of physical activities like swimming, running, drilling, horse riding, martial arts, games, yoga, etc. and work hard to build personality. We are about 30 guys in a camp including my brother. The camp was organized in a huge farm house owned by one of the leading entrepreneurs of India. It has two football grounds (now u can imagine how big it was). There were different groups, we were the freshers there and therefore treated as juniors. We had to stay in one huge hall which was on the first floor of one of the buildings.

It was in the outskirts of Delhi, so there was lot of greenery around. Though we are juniors there but we are very strong individuals and have beaten many groups in all the activities. In the end, we were chosen as the best group among all the 6 groups.

One incident that I still remember is one of the instructor was very strict (he is a retired army man), and we as a group were having some differences with him. So he doesn't miss a chance to give us punishment and make us work hard in all the physical activities (exercises, swimming, horse riding, martial arts, etc.). Though these activities are fun but he made our life miserable. He did beat one of the guy with hunter from our group and only then we collectively came forward and saved the poor fellow. We all cried like anything in front of him and only then he stopped.

One day, we had a session of horse riding on a football ground. My turn came to control the horse and ride the nasty animal. I somehow managed to control it, but when I tried to ride it, it ran very fast. I again controlled it but then it stopped and doesn't move. It stopped under the goal post. I gave all the instructions, made all the signals to move the horse but it doesn't. I was helpless as nobody was around. Finally I got the idea to get rid of the animal. As it was standing under the goal post, I stand on horse and grabbed the pole. As soon as I gripped the pole and hang from it, horse ran towards its instructor. That was one of the funniest and most embarrassing moment of my life.

(To be continued.....)

Stepping into new life

I did not get time to even write about this news for a long time but today, I want to announce in blogger community that I am getting married on 9th February, 2010. It has been a wonderful journey till now and I hope my future voyage will be equally exciting. There are butterflies in my stomach but I am sure everything will be OK. All is well, All is well :)