In her “pro-people” budget presented on Friday, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee gave the city some reason to cheer with her announcement of a Delhi-Pune non-stop train.

Besides this, a superfast daily train between Pune and Solapur that will run via Daund has also been announced. The Hyderabad-Osmanabad train has been extended till Pune and it will run thrice a week. The frequency of Pune-Patna Express has also been increased to daily. The train is now operated four times a week.

Two more trains will also run via Pune. The Nagpur-Gaya Dikshabhoomi Express has been given extension up to Kolhapur and Dhanbad respectively, which will now run via Pune. The Mumbai-Visakhapatnam train will also go via Pune.

Another important announcement for Pune was that it will be made part of a cluster of 50 railway stations to be developed with world-class facilities. The plan is to set up multi-functional complexes (MFCs) on station premises for providing rail users facilities like shopping, food stalls and restaurants. It will also have bookstalls, PCO/STD/ISD/Fax booths, medicine and variety stores, budget hotels and underground parking.

The Delhi-Pune non-stop train will be one of the 12 point-to-point trains between select cities. Central Railway official Y K Singh said, “The non-stop train will considerably cut down the time to reach Delhi and back.”

Harsha Shah, president of the Railway Pravasi Group said, “Though this train has been announced, the minister has kept the custody of the train with the Northern Railway. This will only give more revenue to NR.”

... contd.