RailEnquiry

to increase budgetary allocation to railways considering its vital importance to the nation. Talking about the huge rush at the railway reservation counters and the problems faced while accessing e-booking website, he said a new Rs 55 crore project for upgradation of the website with the help of CRIS will be taken up. "With this one million ticket booking per day could be done," he said. The minister said funding would not be a problem in taking up new projects and pinned much hope on the proposed Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana to fund socio-economic projects. "Rail should not be treated as a commercial entity. We have to take socio-economic project into considerations as well," he said, adding, response of the state governments have been encouraging in this regard. Roy said he would personally reply to every member who wrote to him and would be visiting Guwahati after the Budget session to assess the wishes of the people of the North Eastern states and review project works in the region. Earlier, criticising his party colleague and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi for hiking rail fares, Derek O'Brien (Trinamool) said "between 2009 and May 2011 under Mamata Banerjee, the Railways came up with a very time bound vision document 2020. "My suggestion to the Railway Minister would be to stay focused on it so that this brilliant organisation can continue to be the lifeline of the country," O'Brien said. Several members voiced their concern over the poor financial health of Indian Railways, with Bashistha Narain Singh (JD-U) demanding a vision document highlighting the roadmap to tone up its resources and finances.