Scoring yet again in his avatar as Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav has lined up schemes which will not only earn the ministry a substantial Rs 120 crore annually but are also certain to warm passenger hearts.

The ministry has drawn up a plan to let banks, both nationalised and private, set up ATMs at railway stations all over the country, while in another move, it promises to have automatic vending machines selling popular cola and coffee brands at railway stations within six months.

In an ‘Expression of Interest’ invited earlier to set up the vending machines, the Railways received responses from brands like Amul, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Cafe Coffee Day, Hindustan Lever and Tata Tea. After shortlisting the players and identifying around 750 sites, the Railways is now preparing to call for a tender.

‘‘While some of the players have expressed a desire to set up vending counters selling other eatables, we have decided to invite bids for 500 vending machines and 250 vending counters at first,’’ said Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty to Lalu.

‘‘The plan is to have these 750 vending machines in place in the next six months and increase their number to 4,000 in an year. The divisional railway managers have been asked to identify around 3,000 more sites.’’

The ministry is also keen to have major banks open ATMs at railway stations. While nationalised banks would be allotted sites, private-sector banks would have to go through the bidding route. State Bank of India (SBI) is already learnt to have identified more than 650 sites, reportedly offering Rs 14.5 crore as licence fee.

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