Mamata apologises for not achieving world-class station target

KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday apologised for the delay in developing 60 railway stations into world-class stations as proposed in her last rail budgets.

I must say sorry, I apologise to my house for the world class stations, said Banerjee while presenting the rail budget 2011-12.

Though railways have announced the setting up of a number of world-class stations, not much headway could be achieved because of their high costs. We are taking a re-look at the parameters and guidelines to provide what will suit Indian passengers best. This work will definitely be taken up in the coming year, Banerjee assured the members of the house.

In her rail budget in 2009 she had proposed that around 50 stations would be developed as world class stations with international level facilities. The stations would be developed through innovative financing and in Public Private Partnership mode.

Among the stations to be developed into world class stations are CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kanpur, Guwahati, Jaipur, Chennai Central, Tiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Bangalore City, Baiyapanahali (Bangalore), Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Gaya Jn., Agra Cantt., Mathura Jn., Chandigarh, Kolkata, New Jalpaiguri, Majerhat, Mangalore, Porbandar, Anand Vihar (Delhi), Bijwasan (Delhi), Ajmer Jn. and Puri.

In her rail budget 2010, she proposed to develop 10 more stations into world-class stations which were Ambala Cantt, Bolpur, Ernakulam, Gorakhpur, Jammu, Jhansi, Kharagpur, Kota, Surat and Thane.