Rs.50 crore for making public transport safer for women

New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) To make public transport safer for women, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday allocated Rs.50 crore to the road transport and highways ministry in the budget for 2014-15.

"An outlay of Rs.50 crore will be spent by the ministry of road transport and highways on pilot testing a scheme on Safety for Women on Public Road Transport," Jaitley said while presenting his maiden budget.

"Women's safety is a concern shared by all the members of this house. We need to test out different approaches that can be validated and scaled up quickly," he added.

Meanwhile, as compared to last year, the ministry got a 13 percent hike in its allotted funds to develop roads.

The budget allocated to the ministry for 2014-15 Rs.34,345 crore, against 2013-14's Rs.30,338 crore - an increase of 13 percent.

"I propose investment in National Highways Authority of India and state roads of an amount of Rs.37,880 crore, which includes Rs.3,000 crore for the northeast," said Jaitley.

During the current fiscal, a target of national highway construction of 8,500 km will be achieved, he added.

"This will improve the supply chain in transporting goods across cities," said Jaitley, adding that work would be initiated on select expressways in parallel to the development of the industrial corridors.

"For project preparation, the NHAI shall set aside a sum of Rs.500 crore," he said.

Jaitley said that a modern nation needed multiple sources of transport and a country of the size of India must have a transport network which can ensure faster travel across cities which are geographically distant.