Saturday, February 26 2005 15:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today (Feb 26, 2005) proposed to start 46 new trains in the Rail Budget for 2005-06.

The new trains proposed are Muzaffarpur-Howrah Jansadharan Express, Bhagalpur-Malda Town Express, Bilaspur-Tirupati Express, Jabakpur-Bhopal Express, Chennai Egmore-Secunderabad Express, Madgaon-Mangalore Jan Shatabdi Express, Bilaspur-Itwari Express, Mangalore- Shravanbelagola Passenger, Kumbakonam-Thanjavur Passenger, Chennai Egmore-Pondicherry Link Passenger, Guwahati-New Bongaigaon Passenger, Secunderabad-Nanded Express, Secunderabad-Nizamabad Passenger, Secunderabad-Bodhan Passenger and Secunderabad-Basar Passenger.

The new trains also include Gondia-Balaghat Passenger, Udaipur-Jaipur Express, Yeshwantpur-Mangalore Express via Mysore, Yeshwantpur-Mangalore Express via Arsikere, Madurai-Manamadurai Passenger, Thanjavur-Thiruvarur Passenger, Udaipur-Chittorgarh Passenger, Kanpur-Farrukhabad Express, Kanpur-Farrukhabad Passenger, Lucknow-Farukabad Passenger, Rupsa-Bangariposi DMU, Ranchi-Lohardaga DMU, Bankura-Rainagar DMU, Amritsar-Attari DMU and Ajmer-Rewari Passenger.

The remaining new trains proposed in the Rail Budget are Hubli-Chikjajur Passenger, Rajkot-Veraval Fast Passenger, Ahmedabad-Mehsana Passenger, Agra Cantt-Bayana MEMU, Parli-Parbhani Passenger, Jaipur-Rewari Passenger, Bina-Guna Passenger, Gondia-Chanda Fort Passenger, Mathura-Bandikui Passenger, Belgaum-Miraj Passenger, Gwalior-Guna Passenger, Bhubaneswar-Sambalpur Express, Secunderabad-Gudur Express, Veraval-Ahmedabad Express and Udaipur-Nizamuddin Express.

In addition to these, Laloo Prasad also proposed to run a train between Patna and Amritsar which would be added to the Akal Takht Express.

Extension of existing trains

The Railway Minister also announced extension of 28 existing trains.

These are New Delhi-Muzaffarpur Lichchavi Express to Samastipur, Jaisalmer/Barmer-Sarai Rohilla Express to Delhi, Delhi-Farukabad Kalindi Express to Bhiwani on one side and Kanpur on the other, Mysore-Thanjavur Express to Kumbakonam, Coimbatore-Thanjavur Express to Kumbakonam, Tirupati- Hyderabad Krishna Express to Nizamabad, Mumbai CST-Nizamabad Devgiri Express to Kacheguda, Trivandrum-Hapa Express to Rajkot-Veraval instead of Rajkot-Hapa, 874/877 Tiruchirapalli- Thanjavur Passenger to Tiruvarur and 898/899 Tiruchirapalli- Thanjavur Passenger to Tiruvarur.

The trains extended also are Neemuch-Chittaurgarh Passenger to Udaipur, Allahabad-Kanpur Passenger to Farrukhabad, Chennai Egmore-Erode Express to Coimbatore, Ahmedabad-Dhanbad Parasnath Express to Asansol, Ahmedabad-Muzaffarpur Sabarmati Express to Darbhanga, Chennai- Vishakhapatnam Express to Bhubaneshwar, Trivandrum-New Delhi Kerala Express to Chandigarh, Delhi-New Jalpaiguri Sikkim Mahananda Link Express to Alipurduar.

Kacheguda-Sri Sathyasai Prashanti Nilayam Express to Yesvantpur, Jaipur-Bangalore Express to Mysore, Trivandrum-Bilaspur Express to Korba, Howrah-Malda Town Passenger to Balurghat, Nizamuddin- Secunderabad AP Sampark Kranti Express to Tirupati via Kurnool, Nizamuddin-Bhubaneswar Hirakud Express to Visakhapatnam, Jaipur-Bilaspur Express to Bhubaneswar and Puri-Nizamuddin Kalinga Utkal Express to Haridwar, Delhi- Muzaffarpur Sapta Kranti Express to Darbhanga.

The Minister also proposed that Sanghamitra Express between Rajendranagar, Patna and Yeshwantpur would now go to Bangalore city.

Increase in frequency of trains

The frequency of ten trains was also increased with the Railway Minister announcing that he proposed to speed up over 30 trains and convert Dadar-Chennai Express to a superfast one.

He also proposed to augment well-patronised trains over the railway network wherever feasible by deploying about 400 additional coaches.

Among the trains whose frequencies were increased are New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Link Express from tri-weekly to daily, Lokmanya Tilak-Chhapra Godan Express from weekly to tri-weekly, Puri-Tirupati service from weekly to five days a week and Lokmanya Tilak-Gorakhpur Godan Express from tri-weekly to four days a week.

Laloo announced 46 new trains, more than one-third of them connecting South, extension of the run of 27 trains and increasing the frequency of 10 popular trains.

The Railways also proposed to undertake surveys of 31 new lines and expedite gauge conversion of some of the lines. During the year a target completion 935 kms of gauge conversion has been proposed in nine sectors.

Facilities to passengers

Referring to passenger amenities, the Minister said an attempt has been made to expand the reach of telephone lines pertaining to railway enquiry throughout the country by accessing a universal telephone number 139 at local call rates so that rural people can also be benefited.

The facility of booking tickets through Internet, which was started for cell phones for the current year, will soon be available on landline phones also between 4 AM and 11:30 PM without a break from March 15 this year.

The reservation status in advance system will be updated continuously so that the waiting list position is known more than four hours before train departure.

Along with the reservation chart, it is proposed to display vacancy position charts in all reserved coaches and on the platform so that wait listed passengers can have information about vacant berths in various legs of journeys to enable transparency in their allotment. A pilot scheme is proposed to be launched for Mumbai suburban passengers to renew their season tickets on Internet and have it home-delivered on the lines of Internet ticketing for reserved category.

The passenger reservation system is proposed to be extended to the remaining 100 district headquarters towns in the next two years. 45 such locations will be covered in 2005-06.