The innocuous silver-coloured Maruti Zen made its way through the gates of Rail Bhavan on Thursday, going almost unnoticed till its driver pulled up to allow his front-seat passenger to disembark. As she alighted from the car, dressed in her trademark white Dhonekhali sari for her first day in office in Delhi, Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee took almost everybody, including the RPF security personnel, by surprise.

Mamata played down attempts to rake up a controversy over her stated plans to spend more time in her home state West Bengal, saying "what matters is performance and not the place of operation". "If I stay in Delhi 365 days of the year and my performance is zero, what use will that be?" she asked.

Asked about her immediate plans for the Railways, Mamata said she will first "take stock of the situation". "I know what to do and what not to do. I have worked here earlier for one year and five months," she said.

On whether her ministry would stick to big plans like setting up world-class railway stations, the Trinamool leader said that "the economic situation will have to be examined". She also underlined that this year, the Railways will have to pay out Rs 14,000 crore to implement the Sixth Pay Commission and hinted that this might limit the financial flexibility of her ministry. Mamata reminisced that the last time she was in the same post, she faced a similar situation.

In fact, ministry old-timers still recall how Mamata would pay from her own pocket for the tea and refreshments she ordered for her official guests. Today, as she took charge of the Railways after an eight-year gap, one of her aides handed out a Rs 20 note to a peon asking him to bring a bread-toast for the minister.

Mamata's aversion to using official facilities, however, has some of her partymen worried. "Last time around, she chose to stay in her M S Flats accommodation. She associates this residence with the birth of the Trinamool Congress," says one of them. Party colleagues are trying to convince her to move into a bigger house, given that more MPs means "more space would be required to entertain them".