Lalu presents Interim Railway Budget for 2009-10

NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday presents his sixth rail budget, saying the Railways have scaled new heights. Following are the main points of the rail budget:

The turnaround made by the Railways was far different from that achieved by private enterprises.

The efforts in the last five years have been not to burden the common man, says Prasad.

The Railway Minister said, "There has been a sharp decrease in the number of accidents in Railways since 2003"

The railway line between Anantnag and Rajwansher is Kashmir valley will be extended to Qazigund in four months.

Freight loading in the current year has come down due to economic downturn, because of which revenue has fallen. Otherwise it would have touched Rs one lakh crore.

Due to implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, Railways are expected to incur an additional burden of Rs 9,000 crore on salaries and Rs 4,500 crore on pensions, says Prasad.

Railways expected to show a surplus of Rs 18,847 crore in the next fiscal.

Dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana to Kolkata to be inaugurated later this month by Sonia Gandhi, says Prasad.

Feasibility studies are on for running bullet trains between Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad-Pune, Hyderbada-Vijaywada- Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore, Delhi-Patna, Kolkata-Haldia and Ernakulam-Howrah.

Rail minister says air conditioned travel cheaper by 2 pc

Rail minister says to cut passenger fares on some trains by up to 2 pc

Study for high speed "bullet trains" has begun.