Abhinav Bindra - Indian Shooter

India's first ever individual Olympic gold medallist Shooter Abhinav Bindra's gold medal winning performance in the Beijing Olympics has got him free rail travel by air-conditioned first class for the rest of his life.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Monday announced a free lifetime train travel pass for him which is valid for first class AC travel by all the trains including Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains.

Indian Rail System

Indian Railways are the largest rail network in Asia and the world's second largest under one management. Indian Railways is a multi-gauge, multi-traction system covering over 1 lakh track kilometres,3800 yards, 2400 goodsheds and 750 repair shops. Its has got around 8500 locomotives, 40,000 coaching vehicles and 3.6 lakh freight wagons.

The work force is approx. 22 lakhs and it runs some 11,500 trains everyday, including 7,200 passenger trains.Freight traffic on Indian Railways has registered an impressive growth in the last four decades.