Marginal increase in Bengal rail budget outlay

West Bengal, which is serviced by three railway zones, has been given a total outlay of Rs.3,820 crore in the railways budget for 2016-17 presented by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, a marginal increase over last year's Rs.3,793 crore.

Giving snippets of the railways budget, general manager of the city-headquartered Eastern Railway (ER) and the South Eastern Railway (SER) A.K. Goel described the budget as balanced.

"We are happy with the budget, though it throws up more challenges and adds up responsibilities, but it is balanced since the burden has not been given to the common man. It shows the ability to undertake the onerous task and maintain the efficiency level," he told media persons.

Goel however refused to comment on aif Bengal failed to find prominence in Prabhu's budget.

"The budget outlays of both ER and SER have increased over the last year, we have got new projects and we are committed to commission the ongoing projects on time.

"On the security front, CCTV cameras will be installed in 162 locations across the SER, 850 locations in the ER," said Goel adding that stress was being given on the use of solar power for illuminating railway premises including stations, offices and hospitals.

A mobile application for unreserved ticket booking for the Howrah-Kharagpur section on the SER was also launched on the day.

Designed by Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), the "utsonmobile' mobile app covers single, seasonal and platform tickets with the passenger required to commence the journey within two hours of booking the ticket on the app.

However, once booked, the ticket cannot be cancelled.