Spicing it up with movie jargon
Bollywood movies Chak De, Goal and Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne came to the aid of Lalu Prasad in describing the achievements of his Ministry.
The Indian Railways in its “historic” profit-making binge has been “kicking one Goal after another and every child in the country is today cheering Chak De railway”, Prasad said.
“We have not only shown dreams but turned them into reality... Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne (Mungeri Lal’s sweet dreams) have been turned into reality and are being implemented,” he said, amid laughter and applause from all sides.
LEDs to display information
Heralding a new LED revolution in, Railways will install LED boards on trains, at railway stations and parking lots for disseminating information to passengers, reports PTI from New Delhi.Announcing these measures in the Railway budget on Tuesday, Lalu Prasad said his Ministry has decided to install online coach indication display boards on over-night mail and express trains by March 2009.
“On board passengers are generally unaware of the timely running and likely arrival of approaching stations whereas this information is available on screen on international flights. This is a particular source of inconvenience to passengers de-boarding the train at night time,” he said. He said the information boards will continuously display the remaining distance and likely time of arrival of the next approaching station.
Tickets via mobile phone, Net
Passengers may soon be able to book tickets through mobile phones, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said while presenting the Railway Budget 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
“There is phenomenal growth of mobile phones in our country, and at present about 30 crore (300 million) mobile phones are available with the people of India. This number is expected to increase to 50 crore (500 million by 2010),” Lalu Prasad said.
“We are, therefore, exploring the option of issuing reserved and unreserved rail tickets through mobile phones,” he added.The minister said passengers would now be able to buy waitlisted e-tickets also through the Internet. “Presently e-tickets are issued only against confirmed reservation. In line with the demand of passengers, it has now been decided to extend the facility of e-ticket to waitlisted passengers also,” Prasad said.
