Presenting the Interim Railway Budget for 2004-05 on Friday, Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar kept the 'feel good factor' chugging along when he announced that there would be no increase in passenger fares and freight rates.

Being a vote-on-account, there was no proposal to increase freight and passenger fares, he said.

Presenting the budget along with a vote-on-account for over Rs 26,000 crore for expenditure in the first four months of the next financial year, the railway minister fixed the plan outlay at Rs 13,425 crore for the next fiscal.

• Highlights of the interim Railway Budget
• Interim Railway Budget 2004-05: Complete Coverage

The outlay will consist of a budgetary support of Rs 4,544 crore, special railway safety fund of Rs 2,795 crore, Rs 401 crore from central road fund, internal resources of Rs 2,635 crore and market borrowing of Rs 3,050 crore.

Nitish Kumar announced that the Railways will soon introduce the facility of ticket reservations over mobile phones.

Other initiatives announced include e-tickets, SMS alerts for delays of Rajdhani and Shatabdi express trains and frequent user plans for passengers of these trains.

The unreserved ticketing system has been extended. A pilot project of e-ticketing will be started on the Shatabdi Express.

The minister also announced the introduction of 17 new trains, linking various Indian states to New Delhi.

The Karnataka Sampark Kranti between Bangalore and Delhi will start from February 8.

A new Jammu-Udhampur Express train will also be introduced from March 25.

Thirty-five additional trains including the Jansadharan Express will be started.

The Jansadharan Express will be a non-stop superfast train between two stations.

This train will be in line with Rajdhanis, Shatabdis, Jan-Shatabdis and will have 100 per cent second-class coaches.

The Railways plan to focus on passenger safety during the current fiscal year.

Projecting a 3 per cent growth in passenger traffic and 20 million tonnes increase in freight traffic, the budget estimates put the gross traffic receipt at Rs 44,482 crore for 2004-05, an increase of Rs 1,877 crore over the revised estimates of 2003-04.

It budgets ordinary working expenses at Rs 32,960 crore for the next financial year and proposes to give current dividend of Rs 3,305 crore to the government along with Rs 300 crore of deferred dividend.

The 17 new series of fast trains linking state capitals with Delhi will be named as 'Sampark Kranti Express.'

The first such train will be from Delhi (Nizamuddin) to Bangalore (Yashwantpur) and would be flagged off on February 8.

The trains will have value-added features -- non-stop run beyond the state, dedicated staff throughout the run and public address systems.

The Rs 20,000 crore outlay for connecting remote and backward areas in the next five years would be called 'Remote Area Rail Sampark Yojana.'

Kumar said Railway Protection Force was gearing up to take over the additional responsibility of escorting trains and providing security in passenger areas from July 1 this

year.

Under Technology Mission on Railway Safety, 14 projects have been approved as a joint effort among Ministries of Railways, HRD and Industries.

Giving details of the financial performance in 2002-03, Kumar said freight loading at 518.74 million tonnes surpassed the revised target of 515 million tonnes.

The current dividend of Rs 2,665 crore and Rs 50 crore of deferred dividend have been paid, he said, adding operating ratio in the current year was put at 92.3 per cent as against the budgeted 94.4 per cent.

Freight loading during the current year was enhanced to 550 million tonnes and growth in passenger traffic was put at 3 per cent.

The current dividend of Rs 2,968 crore and deferred dividend of Rs 300 crore were being paid this year, he said, adding that the plan outlay for the current year was increased by Rs 1,000 crore and fixed at Rs 13,918 crore in the revised estimates.

Working expenses of the department were put at Rs 32,960 crore, while gross traffic receipts touched Rs 44,482 crore.

The Railways have also introduced a computerized coaching refund scheme for grant of refund from passenger reservation system on cancellation of tickets with immediate effect.

A people-friendly rail budget was expected with general elections just round the corner.

Earlier, the presentation of the interim Railway Budget in was delayed for some time as agitated Opposition members stormed the well of the Lok Sabha protesting over a number of issues.

As soon as Speaker Manohar Joshi called Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to present the vote-on-account, slogan-shouting Bahujan Samaj Party members rushed to the well of the House protesting the UP government's decision to denotify nine districts in the state

Announcing measures to improve railway safety and security, Nitish Kumar said that Rs 20,000 crore would be earmarked for execution and completion of railway projects in remote and backward areas.

Presenting the budget, he said it provides an outlay of Rs 2,795 crore for Special Railway Safety Fund and meets part of the plan outlay through market borrowing of Rs 3,050 crore.

It also includes an outlay of Rs 717 crore for Railway Vikas Nigam Limited.

The minister pegged the annual plan outlay at Rs 13,425 crore with a budgetary support of Rs 4,544 crore.