Women bless Mamata Banerjee for first ladies’ train

October 4th, 2009 SILIGURI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday announced a new train service between this northern West Bengal town and the coastal tourist destination of Digha in East Midnapore from Monday. "We'll flag off a new train from Siliguri to Digha tomorrow (Monday), which will connect two tourist spots of the state.

September 19th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee flagged off Sealdah-New Delhi Duronto express, the country's first point-to-point non-stop train in Kolkata. The Duronto express will cover the 1447-km distance between Sealdah and New Delhi in 16 hours and 20 minutes.

September 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indian Railways will launch a special train to promote the Commonwealth Games 2010, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said here Monday. The ministry of railways will join hands with the ministries of communication and IT and youth affairs and sports to launch the train, which will travel across the country to "glorify" the Games and promote sportsmanship among the youth, Banerjee told reporters.

August 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday flagged off the the first "Ladies Special" train here for women commuters from Delhi to Palwal in Haryana and said the service would be extended to other nearby cities Sonepat, Aligarh and Ghaziabad soon. "More 'Ladies Special' trains will be provided in the other suburban areas like Sonepat, Aligarh and Ghaziabad," Banerjee said.

July 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday expressed concern over the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, saying it has endangered the people's economic security. "I am very upset with the recent price-rise in the country.

July 20th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee kept up her promise of a 'ladies special' for harried commuters in Kolkata on Sunday. Banerjee flagged off the ladies special EMU, which will run between Howrah and Bandel stations in Kolkata.

July 19th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday flagged off the first ladies special EMU train and 19 augmented 12-coach EMU services in Howrah division in West Bengal, in line with the commitment she made during her 2009-10 budget speech. "This special ladies local train would ply between Howrah and Bandel station twice daily during the peak hours.

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her ministry would look at providing infrastructure and land for setting up Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). "We might even look at building IITs in the future," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha in a discussion on the railway budget.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Indian Railways will deploy women security personnel and increase their number in the proposed commando battalions, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee said in the railways budget presented in parliament Friday. The women Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel will be deployed to ensure security of women passengers, particularly on routes where a large number of them travel alone regularly, Banerjee said while presenting the budget.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Rail travel in India just got more attractive for Gen-X and women. The easy on the pocket special trains Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee announced in her budget speech have been cheered by youth and women.

May 26th, 2009 KAKDEEP - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee drew cheering crowds by the hundreds on her train ride to a cyclone-hit West Bengal district shortly after taking charge as railways minister in Kolkata. The 110-km ride in a three-coach special inspection train to Kakdeep in South 24 Parganas saw the 'Didi of Kalighat' in high spirits as she chatted with her party colleagues and exchanged pleasantries with accompanying mediapersons.

May 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee, who broke convention Tuesday to take charge of her portfolio here instead of the national capital, identified the speedy completion of eastern freight corridor as being crucial to her scheme of things. "The eastern freight corridor between Kolkata and Ludhiana is very important and will be completed very soon," said Banerjee, adding: "It's very important for the development of four states - West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab." Also, the Bihar-Howrah express train, which was renamed as Kandari Express, will be made a daily train.

May 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee registered her sixth consecutive victory from the Kolkata South Lok Sabha seat, trouncing her nearest rival, Rabin Deb of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) by 219,571 votes. Banerjee, who has been winning from this seat since 1991, had defeated Deb in 2004 also.

April 3rd, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has said that she will not ride Tata's Nano car because it was "manufactured with the people's blood." "I will not ride the Nano which has been manufactured with the people's blood," Banerjee said in Kolkata. Mamta's party's anti-land acquisition agitation led to the shifting of Tata's Nano manufacturing factory from West Bengal.

March 14th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday fielded a woman candidate against Mamata Banerjee for the Lok Sabha's Kolkata South seat after Trinamool Congress snapped ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to team up with the Congress in West Bengal. BJP sources here said the party's state Mahila Morcha (women's wing) president Jyotsna Banerjee has been nominated for the prestigious constituency.