Not many new projects in rail budget
Indian Railway statitics:
- Indian Railways (IR) is known as the largest and busiest rail network in Asia
- It is also believed to be the world's largest railway system under a single management
- IR runs over 11,000 trains everyday Out of these, nearly 7,000 are passenger trains
- It transports more than 1.8 crore passengers and over 20 lakh tonnes of freight everyday
- The Railway employs more than 14 lakh people
- IR has nearly 7,000 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometres
- Its revenue was more than Rs 70,000 crores in 2008 More than 70% of the IR’s revenues and most of its profits come from the freight sector Looking at these humungous figures, no wonder Indian Railways is described as the 'Lifeline of the Nation'.
- Railways in India touch the lives of almost everyone – from a poor to a rich man. Be it by way of travelling or the goods that are brought to our cities and towns by the Railways, our lives are intertwined with this ‘Lifeline’.
- So any decision that is taken with regard to the Railways is bound to affect the masses, not to mention the over 14 lakh people working for this ‘giant’.
- Railways was rarely a profitable venture until Lalu Prasad Yadav took over as the Union Railway Minister in 2004, when the Congress-led UPA government came to power. His tenure has seen a turnaround of the department whose annual balance sheet is so big that it needs to be presented by way of a separate budget in Parliament.
PNR Status
http://www.indianrail.gov.in/pnr_stat.html
