A congestion charge has been put on specific commodities. Of course, Prasad had said emphatically in his Railway Budget 2008-09 address to Parliament that there will be no increase in freight rates.

In addition, the Railways have raised the maximum permissible carrying capacity of its wagons by two to eight tonnes.

Prasad's critics said this has been done to raise more money, though the capacity of the wagons is the same.

The Railways are confident of generating a cash surplus of Rs 31,000 crore (Rs 310 billion) by the end of 2008-09, up from Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in 2007-08. There are no signs of a slowdown in Yadav's world.

Image: Lalu Prasad Yadav poses for the media with US National Defence University Director of Financial Sevices Industry Studies David Blair (centre) and other officials during a meeting in New Delhi. | Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana.