New Delhi, February 26

FIRST the nuisance. Even as Railway Minister Lalu Yadav assured the nation of touch screens and colour televisions at all major stations, the solitary TV at the main entrance of New Delhi railway station from the Paharganj side was kaput all day. What that meant was simple: no one saw Indian Railways’ turnaround-man as he made the budget speech.

Now the news. With 10 new trains from Delhi and a Rs 48.64-crore plan to upgrade the Capital’s stations the budget bodes well for Delhi. Or does it?

For, Tuesday afternoon at the three major stations belied that: there was trash, little signs of trashcans, and no sign whatsoever of tidiness. Chaos, as usual, ruled across the platforms, made worse by a hoax bomb call at Nizamuddin station (see box).

But, to cut the chase, here’s what Delhiites get: new trains to places such as Varanasi, Ranchi, Amritsar, Udaipur and Lucknow among others. An increased frequency of some trains, and plans for Anand Vihar station, in east Delhi, to be ready by December 2008.

Also, four new platforms at New Delhi station, which officialdom expects will be ready by April 2008.

“We will be well equipped to deal with traffic generated by the new trains.” That’s the assurance from A S Negi, the public relations officer of Northern Railways.

The budget said professional agencies would be “involved on a pilot basis to ensure cleanliness on running trains”. But at stations, the reaction was mixed: some scoffed, some huffed, some puffed, while still others welcomed the plan. Sans any cynicism.

Sunil Nagpal, a passenger who got off a train from Ludhiana at New Delhi station, said privatisation would mean less appointment at the “local government level”. Now, is that good or bad? Only economists, sociologists, psychoanalysts and futurists can provide an answer, Nagpal shot back.

But one announcement that met with a round of applause and wolf-whistles was reduction in train fares.

AT A GLANCE
New trains
Delhi-Pathankot Express (triweekly)
Delhi-Jogbani Link Express (weekly)
Khajuraho-Delhi Link Express (weekly)
Ramnagar-Delhi Link Express (daily)
Udaipur-Delhi Chetak Express (tri-weekly)
Radhikapur-Delhi Express (weekly)
Lucknow-Delhi AC Express (6 days)

Track and off track
DOUBLING TRACKS:
Rs 10 cr for Tilak Bridge
Rs 25 cr for Tughlakabad-Palwal
Rs 35 cr for Anand Vihar-Sahidabad
Rs 1.53 cr for overbridge at Vivek Vihar
Rs 30 lakh for ovebridge at Yamuna Nagar

Bomb hoax at station
Four-thirty in the afternoon, and the Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Police suddenly began running helter skelter. They had just received an anonymous call: a bomb was placed inside August Kranti Rajdhani Express to Mumbai. It would go off at the station itself, the call said.

Platform number 6, where the train was stationed, and the train was immediately evacuated. “Police and railway police personnel along with bomb squads searched the entire train for two hours,” an officer said, “before it was declared a hoax call.”