providing funds.. Trivedi is pushing for a national policy on railways, that would continue irrespective of political changes in the government. He has also said that the ministry is also open to the idea of privatisation, which would allow more funds to be allocated to help the system cope with capacity. He stepped down as the Railway Minister on 18 March 2012, a couple of days after presenting his first ever Railway Budget in which he increased passenger fare. This did not go down well with his political party, Trinamool Congress and in particular its head West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Trivedi also expressed his interest to start high speed passenger trains in India with Japanese help or French support. In 2011, the script of the James Bond film Skyfall, part of which was shot on trains in India, had to be changed when Trivedi insisted that people not be shown travelling on the roofs of trains, which is illegal. In August 2011, Mamata Banerjee's ministerial room in the Parliament, which has traditionally been allotted to the railway minister, was allotted to another minister as she was his senior colleague in the cabinet. However, before the formal orders could be issued, Trivedi involved the Prime Minister and Mamata Banerjee to get the room allotted to himself to avoid "utter humiliation of the Railway Ministry and 14 lakh Railway employees". According to The Tribune, his party also reminded the Prime Minister that the UPA owed this to its biggest ally, the AITC. Railway budget controversy On 14 March 2012, Trivedi announced the annual rail budget 2012 that included an all over hike in passenger fares, ranging from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometre for reasons of safety along with network expansion and modernisation. The fare hike was opposed by his own party's leader, Mamata Banerjee. Senior TMC MPs Sudeep Bandyopadhyay and Derek O'Brien both expressed their disagreement. However, the budget received support from the general public, industry groups and all five Rail Unions. TMC chairperson and Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee declared that she will not allow any hike in railway fares proposed in the Railway Budget. Banerjee denied being consulted by Railway Minister on the issue of fare hike. On the same day, Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to dismiss Dinesh Trivedi as Minister of Railways and give the portfolio to