NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Monday announced that efforts will be made to introduce air-conditioned trains in suburban services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

During the 11th Five year plan efforts will be made to introduce air-conditioned trains in suburban services in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata and escalators at major stations, he said presenting the Rail Budget 2007-08.

Prasad also announced that ongoing works on suburban services in Kolkata and Chennai would also be completed on priority basis.

To mitigate the overcrowding of Mumbai's trains, he said that enhancement in capacity of these services will have to be undertaken during the 11th Five year plan.

During this plan, he said MUTP-Phase-I will be completed and added that work on Phase-II costing Rs 5,000 crore is also proposed to be started. The Rs5,000 crore MUTP Phase-II project would be done with the participation of Railways,
State Governments and Multilateral funding institutions.

"All out efforts will be made to complete both these phases within the 11th Five Year Plan so that suburban services and long distance trains are completely segregated. This will enhance their capacity by 56 per cent," Prasad said.