New Delhi, Feb 25 :    New Delhi, Feb 25:  Railway minister Mamata Banerjee did what railway ministers usually do on a rail budget day - announced a series of sops for their home state. But what stumped her detractors from the Left and made former Congress colleagues see red was her rather successful bid to upstage Bengal's last Santa Claus at Rail Bhawan - A.B.A Ghani Khan Chowdhury. Mamata today gifted five new projects to Bengal including a new bi-weekly Sealdah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express out of 19 for the whole country. The state also got seven out of the 14 track doubling projects, a Rs 695 crore project to extend the Calcutta Metro from Tollygunge to Garia, and a plan to take the city's circular rail to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport. Barkatda as Chowdhury is popularly known had managed to give Bengal just three projects and electrification of five lines in his salad years as rail mantri, besides Rs 80 crore to be spent on the Metro project. The veteran Congress leader knew when he was beaten. Soon after Mamata presented her budget, Ghani Khan Chowdhury walked across to congratulate his former junior in the Congress party. 'After a long time the Indian Railways under Mamata Banerjee has shown interest towards the long-pending projects in West Bengal,' Ghani Khan said later. 'But I would have been happier if some of the old projects, about which Mamata appears to be in the dark, were included in the budget. They are an open-heart surgery unit at B.R. Singh Hospital, a cancer research centre named after actor Uttam Kumar in Tollygunge, and a kidney transplant unit and a burn unit at Garden Reach and Kharagpur railway hospitals respectively. I had laid the foundation stones of these projects in the early 1980s. If they are completed, the people of Bengal and Assam will benefit.' Mamata has taken care to see to it that none in Bengal can complain even if there are problems elsewhere. Even the remote corners of West Bengal have been linked through four new train services - Howrah-Purulia Express (daily), Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express (tri-weekly), Shalimar-Bankura Express and Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly). Another new Howrah-Digha Express will be introduced upon completion of new line construction between Digha and Tamluk. Investment on new lines have been stepped up considerably from a level of Rs 514 crore in the revised estimate this year to Rs 825 crore which includes Jogighopa-Maynaguri and Tarakeshwar-Bishnupur via Arambag. With an eye on her personal constituency where refugees from East Bengal abound, Mamata also announced a rail link up to Petrapole, the border check post with Bangladesh. This is expected to eventually translate into a India-Bangladesh rail link. Mamata took care to rub in the fact that she had done her bit for her state while the Left front-led West Bengal government was yet to deliver. She urged the ruling Left coalition to share the cost of expansion of the Calcutta metro railway from Tollygunge to Garia. Later, Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said: 'I have noted that some of the state's proposals have been included in the announcements made about new trains and projects in this railway budget. These announcements should be implemented in a time-bound manner. The state government will provide necessary cooperation. We should keep in mind that the state of West Bengal contributes more than Rs 2,000 crore, in terms of freight alone, to the Indian Railways every year.' Banerjee increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express, extended the Howrah-Trichy express to Kanyakumari, Amritsar-Barauni express up to Katihar and Sealdah-Katihar express to Barauni. Mamata also decided to gift the people of Darjeeling an upgrade in services and facilities in its famed Darjeeling Himalayan railway. Two 'colourful diesel locomotives' will now add to the beauty of that rail service. Electrification of Ranaghat-Bongaon (32 kms) line announced in 1997-98 budget will cost Rs 14.78 crore. This is expected to be completed by March 2001. Similarly, the Ranaghat-Gede electrification route will cost Rs 32.35 crore. This was also part of the 1997-98 budget. Barasat-Hasnabad included in 1998-99 budget, would cost Rs 37.70 crore, slated to be completed by March 2002.