Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday presented the 15th railway budget in the Parliament. The highlights of the Railway budget 2008-09 are as follows:

• 50 Railway stations, including CST Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Howrah, Sealdah, Varanasi, New Delhi, Lucknow, Jaipur, Kanpur, Chennai Central, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad, Bangalore, Byappanahalli, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Agra Central, Chandigarh, Kolkata, New Jalpaiguri, Puri and Kochi, will be developed to have world-class facilities.

• Railways to develop multi-functional complexes with shopping malls, food stalls, medicines and variety stores in different parts of the country.

• Railways to introduce 67 new trains across the nation.

• Infotainment services to be provided in major long-distance trains.

• One doctor to be posted on long distance trains.

• 309 stations out of 375 across the nation have been identified for development and special facilities will be provided.

• Unreserved ticketing terminals to be expanded from 5000 to 8000. Automatic ticket vending machines to be increased. Arrangement with Department of Posts for issuance of tickets.

• SMS updates will be made available for passengers to check train status and reservation status.

• Auto-vending machines to be installed in large and medium stations.

• E-ticket cancellation system to be simplified.

• High-capacity air-conditioned double-decker trains to be introduced on select inter-city routes.

• An Integrated Security System is being developed for 130 vulnerable stations to provide security to passengers.

• Seven nursing colleges to be set up on railway land in places including Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

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