The Railway Budget for 2011-12 presented to the Parliament on Friday proposes no increase in passenger fares and freight charges. It also proposes the highest ever investment of 57,630 crore rupees. Introduction of nine new Duranto trains , increase in the frequencies of five existing Durantos, three new Satabadi on Pune-Secunderabad, Jaipur- Agra, Ludhiana-Delhi routes , 56 new express trains and 13 new passenger services, new Super AC class are among the other features of the rail budget. The other highlights of budget proposals are Ten Rajya Rani express trains connecting state capitals with important cities in respective states. Special Janam Bhumi Gaurav trains to promote tourism to run on four routes connecting important historical and educational places Introduction of Four Kavi Guru Express and an equal number of Vivek Express trains to commemorate the 150th Birth anniversaries of Rabindrarnath Tagore and Swami Vivekanand. AC double Decker services on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmedabad-Mumbai routes. Outlining the road map of the railways for the coming year, Banerjee said 25 new lines will be added while six gauge conversion and 28 doubling projects would be taken up. Rail concession to physically challenged and Kirti and Shaurya chakra awardees will cover Rajdhani & Shatabdi trains. Concession for Senior Citizens is being increased from the present 30 to 40 percent for men. Concessions of 50 percent to press correspondents with family is proposed to be increased to twice a year. Reaching out to the poor, Ms Banerjee announced Sukhi Griha scheme under which 10,000 dwelling units for those living along the rail track sides will be provided. The housing units will come up in Mumbai, Sealdah, Siliguri and Tiruchirapalli on a pilot basis. A scheme “Pradhan Mantri Rail Vikas Yojana has also been proposed for implementing social projects of the railways during the 12th plan. Ms. Banerjee announced the setting up of a bridge factory in Jammu and Kashmir & establishing a state of the art Institute for Tunnel and Bridge Engineering at Jammu. A metro coach factory will be set up at Singur, diesel locomotive centre in Manipur and Centre of Excellence in Software at Darjeeling as well as setting up of two more Wagon units under Public private partnership mode at Kolar, Allappuzha and Buniadpur. She also announced setting up of two Rail Industrial Parks at Jellingham and new Bongaigaon and a 700 MW gas-based power plant at Thakurli in Maharashtra. New lines will be constructed in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand to give impetus to growth in under-developed areas. Reacting to the rail budget, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that it will help in weakening inflationary pressure as there has been no increase in fares and freight charges. Stating that Mamta Banerjee has done a commendable job , Dr Singh said that Ms Banerjee has taken care to increase investment in critical areas of infrastructure which will supplement growth momentum of the economy. Mr Anant of the BJP described the budget as an elecion manifesto for the coming assembly polls in West Bengal. Refuting charges that her budget is populist and West Bengal oriented Ms Bannerjee said that she had kept the interest of the nation in mind and had given projects to every region. Sitaram Yechury termed the rail budget an exercise in deceit with cunning juggling of figures. Describing the budget as unrealistic, CPI's D Raja said that there is nothing spectacular. The Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari said the budget shows the concerns and sensitivity towards common man. With no increase in fares people are generally happy but feel that rail services need to be improved.