- Weather
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Max |
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40°C |
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Min |
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30°C |
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Sunrise |
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05 : 30 AM |
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Sunset |
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06 : 30 PM |
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Humidity |
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50 to 80 per cent |
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- Prayer Time
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Fajar |
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03:58 am |
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Dhuhr |
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12:09 pm |
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Asar |
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03:30 pm |
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Magrib |
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06:50 pm |
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Isha |
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08:09 pm |
- Oil Price
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- Gold Price
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Price in RO
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24ct / gm |
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17.37 |
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22ct / gm |
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17.00 |
- Currency Rates
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Forex Rates vs R01
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US Dollar |
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2.60 |
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Euro |
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2.01 |
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Pound |
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1.72 |
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Indian Rs. |
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144.42 |
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Pak Rs. |
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255.85 |
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Bangla Taka |
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201.35 |
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New Delhi: With no fare hikes, 106 new trains and a host of proposals for travel safety and comfort, such as escalators at key railway stations, a new e-ticketing system and a swanky coach in select trains, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presented his maiden annual budget for his ministry here.
"The growth of Indian Railways is inextricably linked with the growth of the country," Bansal said in his 80-minute budget speech in Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, that clearly bordered on populism with a fair dose of measures on fiscal discipline.
"Railways must remain financially sustainable. Resources generated must be ploughed back," he said in what was the last such annual exercise for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government before the next general elections, scheduled in 2014.
But Bansal said there will be no major fare hikes this time, having already revised them last month. He nevertheless proposed minor revisions in some charges, such as those for tatkal and reservations. He also called for a routine 5-6 per cent fare hike every year.
On freight, he said, there will be an upward revision of 5-6 per cent from April 1 to balance the hike in fuel costs. He said freight and passenger fares must be de-linked from the fuel costs with periodic automatic adjustments.
Bansal said while making all these proposals, he was happy to note that the operating ratio of Indian Railways — the money spent on recurring costs such as salaries and interest to earn Rs.1 in revenue — had come down to 88 paise from around 95 paise.
He kept the budget plan target for 2013-14 financial year at Rs633.63 billion ($11.5 billion).
The minister said railways remained the single most important catalyst in India's growth story and was a vital organisation integrating the nation from Baramulla in the north to Kanyakumari in the south, and from Dwarka in the west to Ledo in the east.
He said the remaining 13,000-odd unmanned level crossings will be mechanised, while 400 lifts and 179 escalators will be deployed in category one stations. This apart, coaches will be made wheel-chair friendly and approaches made easy for the differently-abled.
India's railroad network, ranked among the top five in the world, is spread over 64,000km with 7,083 stations, to ferry 23 million travellers and 2.65 million tonnes of goods daily on 12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight trains.
Bansal, who represents Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha, said he was well aware about the problems faced by passengers while booking tickets on the Internet.
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