Vote: What's the best thing about Railway Budget?

For the third successive year, the Railway Budget for 2011-12 spared the passengers of any increase in fares and proposed no hike in freight rates while introducing 56 new trains, including nine non-stop Duronto trains and three Shatabdis.

Presenting her third budget in UPA-II in the Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a slew of concessions including reducing the eligibility age of senior women citizens from 60 to 58 years and the fare concession for men above 60 from 30 to 40 per cent.

Apparently with an eye on the coming assembly polls in West Bengal, where she is projected as the chief minister candidate of Congress-Trinamool combine, she came out with a number of projects for the state.

So what was the best thing about the Railway Budget?

We have here a list of a dozen of her proposals in random order. Please take the poll at the end of the slide show to select the one which you feel is the best thing about this year's Railway Budget.

If you think that Mamata could have done more, please mention it in the message board below.

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No hike in passenger fares and freight rates.

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New Super AC Class to be introduced.

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56 new express trains, 3 new Shatabdis and 9 Duronto trains to be introduced.

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Bullet trains on the way? Feasibility study to raise speed of passenger trains to 160-200 kmph to be undertaken.

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A new portal for e-ticketing to be launched shortly. Booking charges will be cheaper with a charge of only Rs 10 for AC classes and Rs 5 for others.

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Pan-India multi-purpose smart card 'Go India' to be introduced.

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236 more stations to be upgraded as Adarsh Stations.

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AC Double Decker services on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes.

47 additional suburban services in Mumbai and 50 new suburban services proposed for Kolkata.

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Anti Collision Devise sanctioned to cover 8 zonal railways.

GPS-based 'Fog Safe' device to be deployed.

All unmanned level crossing up to 3000 to be eliminated.

All India security helpline on a single number set up.

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A special package of two new trains and two projects for the states managing trouble free run of trains through out the year.

All state capitals in the North-East except Sikkim to be connected by Rail in next seven years.

700 MW gas-based power plant to be set up at Thakurli in Maharashtra.

A Diesel Locomotive Centre will be set-up in Manipur.

Rail Industrial Parks at Jellingham and New Bongaigaon proposed.

Additional mechanised laundry units to be set up at Nagpur, Chandigarh and Bhopal.

A Centre of Excellence in Software at Darjeeling proposed under the aegis of CRIS.

A Bridge Factory in Jammu & Kashmir and a state-of-art Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering is proposed at Jammu.

Two new passenger terminals in Kerala and one each in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal proposed.

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Senior citizens concession to be hiked from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

Concession to physically handicapped persons to be extended on Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.

Concession of 50 per cent to press correspondents with family increased to twice a year.

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Medical facilities extended to dependent parents of the Railway employees

16,000 ex-servicemen to be inducted into the Railways by March 2011.

Scholarship for girl child of Group-D railway employees increased to Rs 1,200 per month.

20 additional hostels for children of railway employees to be set up.

Recruitment for 1.75 lakh vacancies of Group 'C' and 'D' including to fill up backlog of SC/ST initiated.