With a hard look at finances, Union Rail Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is expected to go in for a fare hike through the back-door, taking refuge behind 'surcharges on tickets'.

Industry body Assocham is seeking a railway budget focussed on safety and modernisation.

A day ahead of presenting the rail budget, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Railways will soon introduce a 24X7 helpline for women that will be tracked \"on real-time basis\".

Pawan Kumar Bansal is the first full-time railway minister from north west India in the last 45 years and both Punjab and Haryana are hoping to get favourable treatment. Full coverage of Rail Budget 2013

Coal India Ltd Chairman and Managing Director S. Narsing Rao spoke to Business Today in Kolkata about the challenges facing the company and the sector.

Railways has come under fresh pressure to further hike passenger fares, at least in a small way, and revise freight rate in the wake of virtual decontrol of diesel price.

Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal presents his maiden rail Budget.

Between India's massive coal and iron ore reserves, and its power stations and steel plants, is a poor railway network. Better railways could spur economic activity and cut import bills. The need to strengthen the rail network is not only urgent but growing fast.

The railways is planning to introduce about 100 trains, including AC double deckers, new passenger services and extension of services to cater to the demands of various states in Rail Budget 2013-14.

The railways is mulling a marginal hike in freight rate in Rail Budget 2013-14 with a view to easing the additional pressure on the national transporter due to diesel price increase.

The Railways is all set to eliminate 902 level crossings on an over 3,000 km-long-rail line networking across the country. The concrete plan of action is likely to be part of the Rail Budget 2013-14.

Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi ahead of Parliament session beginning from February 21.

With the Planning Commission in no mood to oblige the rail ministry's demands for extra budgetary support for next financial year, the railways will have to resort to levying 'smart surcharge' on the tickets.

The estimated rate of growth in per capita income for the current fiscal, however, is lower than the previous fiscal when it grew by 13.7 per cent.

With the rise in diesel price putting an additional burden of Rs 3,300 crores on Railways, its minister PK Bansal on Thursday did not rule out another round of hike in passenger fares.

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily said oil marketing companies can increase the price of the fuel in small measures every month till their losses are wiped out. Diesel is currently sold at a loss of around Rs 10.80 per litre.

Big Bang reforms allowed P. Chidambaram to make a credible sales pitch during his East Asian roadshow. He told investors during the roadshows that the economy would expand at about 5.7 per cent this financial year.

Ernst & Young's D. K . Srivastava says the right time to de-administer oil prices is when international crude oil prices are softening. Given the recessionary world economic situation, there may be such a window over the next one to two years. This may be the right time to genuinely deadminister the entire sector.

Despite the growing threat, India spends a miniscule amount on cyber securit .

Ruling out roll-back of the \"small\" 45 paisa increase in diesel prices, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily says bulk consumers like Railways will have to find their own budget to buy the fuel at market price.