Railways were now less dependent on budgetary support than five years earlier due to the efforts of Lalu Prasad in making the sector financially self-reliant, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Saturday.

"As (a former) Planning Commission deputy chairman....I have seen that the Railways used to be heavily dependent on budgetary support. Now, thanks to the efforts of Lalu-ji over the past five years, the situation has changed," Mukherjee said after flagging off the Kolkata-Murshidabad Hazar Duari Express from Kolkata terminus.

Stressing the need for development of infrastructure for the country's economic development, Mukherjee said as the then Planning Commission deputy chairman, he had commented in the Eighth Plan approach paper that the country could become developed if $500 bn were spent between 2005 to 2015 to develop infrastructure.

He said that the new train was of historic significance as it connected Murshidabad, the erstwhile capital of Bengal during the rule of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula with Kolkata, the capital of British India.

Others who spoke on the occasion included chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Railways Basudeb Acharia, MPs Md Selim, Sudhangshu Sil and Amitava Nandi, Railway Board Member (traffic) Sri Prakash and Eastern Railway general manager Deepak Krishan.