SME Times News Bureau | 03 Jul, 2009
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee began presenting her ministry's budget for the current fiscal shortly after noon Friday with the promise of addressing the concerns of average passengers.

"People all over the country have high expectations from the railway budget," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, switching between English and Hindi.

She started with a question if Indian Railways, which runs the world's second largest railroad network under single management, should function purely on the basis of economic viability or address the social commitment.

"Time has come when our economic and social philosophers have to change their old mindset of economic viability and replace it with social viability and upliftment," she said.

Banerjee said her focus would be on better passenger amenities, good food at affordable prices, clean toilets at stations and trains.

"Fifty stations will be developed into world class facilities," she said naming those at Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Varanasi Guwahati, Chennai, Mangalore, Porbundar and Kochi, among others.

This is her first rail budget for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and third in her political career.