Railway minister Mamatha Banerjee did not propose any hike in the passenger fare and freight rates in the 2011-12 railway budget presented to the Lok Sabha today.

Announcing the budget with an outlay of Rs 57, 630 Cr, Mamatha said that a new coach factory would be set up at Kazipet in the Warangal district and new railway lines for Kachiguda in Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam and Tirupathi are under the active consideration of the Railway Ministry.

Mamatha proposed new lines for a distance of 1300 km, doubling of lines along 867 km track and gauge conversion for 1017 km track with an expenditure of Rs.9583 Cr in the new railway budget.

Introduction of 56 new Express Trains, 3 new Shatabdis, 9 Duronto trains, AC Double Decker services on Jaipur-Delhi and Ahmadabad-Mumbai routes and new Super AC Class was also announced by the Railway Minister.

Mamatha said a new portal would be introduced shortly for reservations and booking charges will be reduced to Rs.10 for AC classes and Rs.5 for others. Disclosing that 236 stations will be converted into Adarsh stations in the financial year, Mamatha said Mumbai and Kolkatta will have 47 and 50 additional suburban trains respectively.