Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 24 (IANS) A host of special trains for women, tourists, armed forces and the common man will be introduced in the next fiscal, said Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday while announcing the Railway Budget for 2010-11.
The trains will sport names like Matribhoomi (the special train for women), Janmabhoomi (for armed forces), Bharat Tirth (for tourists) and Karmabhoomi (for common people and migrant labour).

“In order to improve their (women’s) travel on rail, I have introduced 21 ladies’ specials on the railway network in major cities of Kolkata, Chennnai, New Delhi and Mumbai,” Banerjee said in the Lok Sabha.

These special trains under the banner ‘Matribhoomi specials’ will run on the suburban sections of the following major metros: on the Delhi-Panipat line, Barasat-Sealdah and Krishnanagar-Sealdah lines in Kolkata, on the Falaknuma-Lingampalli line in Chennai and on Thane-Vashi and Panvel-Nerul-Thane lines in Mumbai.

Banerjee also proposed to run unreserved trains for the common people and migrant labour.

These would be Darbhanga-Mumbai Express (weekly), Guwahati-Mumbai (weekly) via Howrah-Tatanagar-Jharsuguda-Bilaspur-Nagpur and New Jalpaiguri-Amritsar (weekly) via Katihar - Sitapur.

“As a mark of respect to the contribution of the armed forces personnel in defending the borders of our country, the Indian Railways will run special trains titled as ‘Janmabhoomi’ between Ahmedabad and Udhampur every week,” the minister said.

The government is also wooing the tourists with the railway ministry announcing its intention to launch special trains called Bharat Tirth connecting popular tourist sites in different parts of the country.

In addition to the special trains, the minister also introduced a number of passenger trains, increase in the frequency of trains and extension of routes.