Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Monday announced that efforts will be made to introduce air-conditioned trains in suburban services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

During the 11th Five-Year Plan, efforts will be made to introduce air-conditioned trains in suburban services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and escalators at major stations, he said presenting the Rail Budget 2007-08.

Prasad also announced that ongoing works on suburban services in Kolkata and Chennai would also be completed on a priority basis.

To mitigate the overcrowding of Mumbai's trains, he said that enhancement in capacity of these services will have to be undertaken during the 11th Five-Year Plan He said suburban train services in Mumbai would be increased.

During this plan, he said MUTP-Phase-I will be completed and added that work on Phase-II costing Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) is also proposed to be started. The Rs 5,000 crore MUTP Phase-II project would be done with the participation of Railways, state governments and multilateral funding institutions.

"All out efforts will be made to complete both these phases within the 11th Five-Year Plan so that suburban services and long distance trains are completely segregated. This will enhance their capacity by 56 per cent," Prasad said.

Railway Budget 2007-08: Complete Coverage