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ShareMumbai: Presenting her third rail budget after a nine-year hiatus, union railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said she plans to introduce point-to-point train services which will ensure travellers reach their destination early.
Terming them 'Duronto' (meaning very fast in Bengali) trains, Banerjee announced 12 new point-to-point trains connecting major cities to metros, of which three are for Maharashtra. These include Howrah-Mumbai bi-weekly AC train, Mumbai-Ahmedabad tri-weekly AC train and Delhi-Pune bi-weekly AC train.
Emphasising that this would be the first time Indian Railways will have a non-stop train service, she said, "These non-stop train services will have AC and non-AC sleeper coaches which will run between select cities throughout the country."
However, railway officials feel the proposal is difficult to implement. "For such long distances, it is not possible to have a non-stop run as these trains are required to halt for overhauling, changing the engine etc.," said a senior railway official. "Also, such services might invite public uproar as people from locations enroute two stations would not be benefited by it," the official added.
The official pointed out that railways had recently introduced special trains between two stations with reduced halts to cater to large number of people travelling to a particular destination. "We had introduced direct trains with reduced halts for Goa, Chennai, etc. But these services were timely and introduced for a specific period," the official said.
Following the footsteps of her predecessor Lalu Yadav, Banerjee has proposed air-conditioned double-decker coaches for inter-city travel. On this, a CR official requesting anonymity said, "There are trains like Flying Ranee or the Sinhagad Express which have a second deck. These can be fitted with air-conditioning facilities."
On-board docs, toilets
Mamata Banerjee wants to depute at least one doctor in the long distance trains, besides providing ambulance services outside various stations.
She also wants to provide on-board infotainment service on Rajdhani, Shatabdi etc.
Eco-friendly toilets on cards, along with toilet facilities on trains which travel for two hours, instead of the earlier four
