Jayashree Maji and Bhaskar Hazarika
Financial Chronicle
New Delhi, July 3: The Railway Budget opened a box of goodies for the common man with special trains and concessions for all sections of society. The budget has focused on introduction of several new facilities for all class of passengers to ensure comfort backed by safety.
About 50 stations are to be developed into world-class stations with international level facilities. Some of these stations would be CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kanpur, Guwahati and Jaipur. Banerjee said that these would be developed through innovative financing and public-private-partnership (PPP) model.
The ministry would also develop 375 "Adarsh (ideal) stations" during this financial year with basic facilities such as drinking water, adequate toilets, catering services, waiting rooms, and special dormitories for lady passengers. The railways has already identified 309 stations to be developed across the country.
"After taking over as railway minister just few days back, I faced many complaints about deterioration in overall passenger services. Therefore my priority areas will be perceptible improvement in passenger amenities, cleanliness, quality of railway catering, safety and security and punctuality," railway minister Mamata Banerjee said.
The budget also proposed to set up multi-functional complexes (MFCs) in station premises for providing rail users facilities like shopping, food stalls and restaurants. The MFCs will also have bookstalls, PCO booths, medicine shops, variety stores, budget hotels and underground parking among other facilities. A total of 50 such railway stations would be developed in places of pilgrimage, industry and tourist interest. On-board infotainment services would be provided on Rajdhanis, Shatabdis and important long distance inter-city trains for a pleasurable travel experience.
Moreover, there will also be focus on improving the cleanliness in trains through modern mechanised automated laundries. The railways will explore the possibility to depute at least one doctor in long distance trains. Arrangements would be made to provide ambulance services for passenger. The minister said that it envisages the trials of vacuum toilets similar to those used in aircraft on a few coaches. Field trials are also being conducted for introducing environment friendly green toilets.
Ms Banerjee said that the railways would sell tickets from 5,000 post offices .
