India’s state-owned railways, one of the largest and most profitable networks in the world, plan to leap from the steam to the cyber age with a budget aimed at advancing electronic ticketing and developing 50 world-class stations.

Mamata Banerjee, new railways minister, who presented the budget to parliament on Friday, said the government and private partners would transform big terminuses, including Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Bangalore, to raise them to international standards with shopping, hotels and telecommunications.