Bokaro Chamber of Commerce and Industries and various community associations have written to railway minister Suresh Prabhu with a wish list for the railway budget that is to be merged with this year's Union Budget to be presented on February 1.

In his letter, Bokaro chamber patron Sanjay Baidya listed 15 demands, including extension till Bokaro several trains running from Ranchi, namely, Ranchi-Pune Express; Ranchi-Yashwantpur (Banglore) Express; Lokmanya Tilak Express, which connects the state capital to Mumbai; Coalfield Express, which runs between Howrah and Dhanbad; Purulia-Villappuram Superfast Express and Hatia-Ernakulam Express.

"There should be new trains connecting the two steel hubs, Jamshedpur with Bokaro and Ranchi and the Bhagalpur Express should also be extended till Sambalpur," Baidya said, adding that "justice" should be done to Bokaro since it is the largest revenue earning station of Adra rail division.

Bokaro-Madras Passenger Association, which comprises members of Utkal and Telgu Samaj, Kannada Sangha and Tamil Madalam, has also demanded a super-fast train to their home states. They pointed out that the only direct train, Alleppy Express, took more than three days to reach its final destination. It had poor on-board security and was ill-maintained. Members of the association also alleged that the train which initially used to operate between Bokaro and Alleppy had now been extended to Dhanbad. It had more than three dozen stops with only three AC coaches, which were insufficient.

JMM has also appealed to the railway minister to consider demands of thousands of people of south and western India presently working at Bokaro Steel and several Coal India companies.

The party has listed 11 demands that include introducing a Ranchi-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, making Ranchi-Jainagar Express a daily train, besides starting new trains to the southern and western parts of India.

The JMM has also asked for a ticket booking centre exclusively for women at Bokaro, besides construction of a shopping complex with a rest house for passengers.