Rail Budget 2011: What does Mumbai get?

Mumbai local train commuters have quite some reasons to be pleased with Mamata Banerjee's Rail
Budget 2011.

Here are the highlights of the railway budget that will affect Mumbaikars directly:

1. Fast corridor on the Harbour line 
2. New suburban line on the Virar-Diva-Panvel route
3. A third line on the Kalyan–Kasara stretch
4. Another line on Pen-Kasu route and Panvel-Apta routes, to be completed by March 
5. 47 additional services on the Thane-Vashi, Thane-Panvel, Borivali-Virar, Andheri-Virar, Bandra-Virar and Churchgate-Borivali sections will be run. 
6. It is also proposed to augment 107 suburban services in Mumbai area from the present 9 car EMUs to 12 Car EMUs.

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Railway Budget 2010 - Mamata Banerjee's Speech

Before we start watching the Rail Budget 2011, let’s have a look at what Mamata Banerjee had to say in the last year’s budget. How much of it has been implemented and how those promises have affected us will give us an insight into how much we should expect from the Rail Budget 2011.

Last year, Mamata Banerjee started the speech by saying she had 2 considerations in mind: Viability of projects and social responsibility.

She announced Mission 2020 of short term and long term goals.

Here are the highlights, announcements and proposals of Mamata Banerjee's Railway Budget 2010 speech: 

• No hike in passenger fare
• Free travel for cancer patients in Third AC and sleeper class; 75 percent concession for companion
• A special task force to be set up to clear investment proposals within 100 days.
• Railway exams to be conducted in Hindi, English and Urdu languages
• Considering that bottled water turns out to be expensive for the passengers, Mamata Banerjee proposed 6 bottling plants that would help provide clean and fresh water at much cheaper rates. Plant locations - Ambala, Thiruvananthapuram, Farakka, Amethi and Nasik
• No privatization of railways
• Rs 1300 Crores to be allocated for amenities for passengers
• Improvement of security of women passengers
• 5 sports academies to be set up
• RFID technology for freight transport
• Launching of Double Decker trains (pilot launch)
• Ex-servicemen to be inducted to RPF (Mamata announced this after quoting Lata Mangeshkar's song  Zara yaad karo qurbaani)
• Insurance facility for licensed porters
• Women's RPF wing to be formed 
• Railways to set up Rabindra Museum in Howrah, Geetanjali Museum in Bolpur  
• Bharat Tirth train to mark Rabindranath Tagore's 150th birth anniversary
• Special train during Commonwealth Games
• 101 new suburban trains in Mumbai
• New suburban trains in Chennai
• New train service to Bangladesh
• No increase in freight tarriff 
• High-speed dedicated passenger corridors
• Freight reduction on foodgrains and kerosene
• Houses for railway employees of 10 years
• 10 new Duronto trains  
• 54 new trains in 2010
• New tourist trains on tourist routes
• 80000 new wagons
• New Janmabhoomi train between Ahmedabad and Udhampur
• New Karmabhoomi train for working class
• Matribhoomi special trains for women
• Service charge on AC fares to be Rs 20 instead of Rs 40
• Mobile e-ticketing facility at hospitals, courts, universities, IITs, IIMs
• Design, Development and Testing centre to be set up at Bangalore
• Railway research centre at IIT Kharagpur
• 13000 unmanned level crossings to be converted to manned level crossings

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New local train services in Mumbai post Railway Budget 2010

Mamata Banerjee's Railway Budget 2010-2011 has quite some promises for Mumbai. And yes, she did speak about 101 new local train / suburban services! When the services will start is not known, but considering that many new services have been introduced in the central and trans-harbour lines quite speedily in the recent past, I am being optimistic about quick action.

The new trains to be introduced across various routes in Mumbai are as follows:
6 trains on central railway main line 
18 trains on harbour line
32 trains between Thane/Kalyan and Kasara/Karjat/Khopoli
35 trains on  Trans-Harbour line (Vashi-Thane route)
2 Ladies’ specials trains on Vashi-Thane and Panvel-Nerul-Thane routes

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