Some say it is time to decongest the existing line infrastructure and cater to the supply shortage of rolling stock to meet the demand for bulk commodities such as coal, cement and foodgrains.
After slamming the Centre for the steep hike in petrol price, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday hit the streets in Kolkata, leading a massive protest march to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance government for a roll-back. Banerjee, who was accompanied by Railway Minister Mukul Roy, party functionaries and thousands of Trinamool Congress workers, marched from Jadavpur to Hazra crossing, a distance of five km in south Kolkata.
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called for peace in Lalgarh in West Bengal during her rally at the Maoist-infested region on Monday.
The Rail Budget will be presented in the first week of July and a balance between the 'commercial and human face' of the railways will be maintained, railway minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday. She also hinted that she would spend more time in her home state than in Delhi as the official work can also be carried out from West Bengal.
The state government had earlier proposed to construct a mega power plant in Singur with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, but BHEL had expressed its inability for the same. Though the Singur site was with the Tatas, its group chairman Ratan Tata had earlier said he did not want to sit on the land and could give it back if the company was compensated for the investment it had made.
Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee welcomed Maoist leader Kishenji's ceasefire offer on Wednesday and said all problems should be solved by diplomatic process.
The meeting is a prelude to the framing of a public private partnership policy for the railways.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has invited President Pranab Mukherjee to visit the state, Railway Minister Mukul Roy said on Wednesday.
Mamata appealed to business houses to join hands for building partnership with the Railways.
Railway Minister joked, broke into poetry and even lost her cool during her 90-minute budget speech.
The bomb attack on West Bengal minister Jakir Hossain snowballed into a political controversy with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that it was a preplanned conspiracy as certain people were 'pressuring' him to switch over to another party, while opposition parties demanded National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the issue.
According to sale deeds, land worth crores of rupees have been sold to Prasad's close relatives in Gopalgunj and Patna.
The Indian Railways has called a two-day meeting of all zonal railway managers in New Delhi this month to review ongoing projects and discuss measures to improve the financial position in wake of a stiff rise in running cost and fears of the PSU missing earning targets.
The Trinamool Congress chief opposed a major provision in the Bill which provides for private developers acquiring 70 per cent of the land for a proposed industrial project directly from the farmers and land-owners.
Union Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi has said that there could be an early election in view of the mandate that Samjwadi Party got in Uttar Pradesh.
According to railway ministry sources, Banerjee is in a hurry to start the train services she had announced in her Budget in July last year.
A team of Trinamool Congress Members of Parliament met Railway Minister and party colleague Dinesh Trivedi soon after he presented the Railway Budget in which he proposed to hike fares across all classes.
Presenting the Rail Budget for 2010-11 in Parliament on Wednesday, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said that there will be no increase in the passenger fares of any class or category of trains.
It was the humble 'jhola' rather than the traditional leather briefcase Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee preferred to bring her budget papers to Parliament on Friday.
The WWF had earlier asked for halting movement of night trains in the New Jalpaiguri-Alipurduar section passing through wildlife sanctuaries and National Parks and restricting their speed.
Visiting Siliguri for the first time after Congress and Left teamed up to form the Siliguri Municipal Corporation board, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee apologised to the electorate on Sunday and termed as "treachery" the recent act of her alliance partner.
Privatising the railways is not on her agenda. But the minister wants to earn revenue for the government by all means possible, and also do social good. railway Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee talks of her pet public-private partnership and Vision 2020. Edited excerpts:
The Trinamool Congress leader was all praise for the Rs 5,000-crore (Rs 50-billion) Sagar Port project by the Kolkata Port Trust, which will be the first project in the country to come up through the reclamation of riverbed.
Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she is not a 'seasonal flower', in another apparent snipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently visited West Bengal. Mamata also said she does not do politics from a 'bed of gold'. Pointing to her life style, she said "I wear hawai chappals because I like wearing them and not because someone says so."
The country's first point-to-point, non-stop train, Duronto express was on Friday flagged off from Sealdah station by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee as a 'Durga puja' gift to the people.
A professor of chemistry of the Jadavpur University was arrested on Friday along with his neighbour for allegedly posting a cartoon on a popular social networking site involving West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Railway Minister Mukul Roy and former Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi. He was later released on bail.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for claiming that she was taking her job as railway minister lightly and said it was he who did not have "vision" for setting up the small car project at Singur.
Seeking to scotch speculation over the Trinamool Congress snapping ties with the UPA, Mamata Banerjee on Monday made it clear that her party was not withdrawing support to the Manmohan Singh government and claimed there was no distrust between them.
Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was on Tuesday elevated to Cabinet rank to take over as Union railway minister replacing Dinesh Trivedi, who was forced to resign after Congress caved in to Mamata Banerjee's pressure.
In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN Editor in Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Mamta Banerjee about the recent row over former Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and the strained relationship with the Congress.
Claiming that Shah is getting "frustrated" by "poor turnout" at his rallies, Banerjee also alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party is plotting conspiracies to kill her as her security director Vivek Sahay was removed by the Election Commission after she sustained injuries last week in Purba Medinipur's Nandigram.
Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has again displayed a mercurial mind. Months after keeping the University of Cambridge, UK, waiting for an answer to its invitation to deliver a lecture and then saying she'd come, she's decided not to go.
What is meant by Mamata's land bank? Will it be effecetive? How far will it be successful in solving the problem of land acquisition that plagues West Bengal?
With the Rail Budget scheduled to be presented in the Lok Sabha on July 3, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that it will be a people's budget.
A day after Home Minister P Chidambaram said Maoists could be behind the attack on Jnaneswari Express, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she was not sure about the involvement of the Left-wing extremists.
Mamata claimed that some political parties were behind the violent incidents that rocked Howrah district
In a thanksgiving budget, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday proposed no increase in passenger fares or freight tariff while announcing a slew of measures including launch of 12 non-stop point-to-point long-distance trains and air-conditioned double-decker coaches for inter-city travel.
The Trinamool Congress chief sounded almost desperate to take land for setting up industry.
Top sources in the government told Business Standard that Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's opposition to divestment plans of profit-making public sector entities prompted the cabinet not to take it up for discussion today.
Dinesh Trivedi takes a dig at Mamata over cartoon row
