Liu was promoted to vice-minister, and later succeeded then-Minister Fu Zhihuan as Minister of Railways in March 2003 at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress. At the time that Liu was made Minister of Railways, the Ministry of Railways was the second most powerful ministry in China (second to the military). It had its own police, judges, and courts, and had a budget of billions of dollars. After being named minister, Liu announced plans to dramatically expand China's then-underdeveloped railway system by building 7,500 miles of new high-speed railway tracks, more than could be found in the rest of the world combined. The central government supported Liu's plans, and allocated Liu a budget of over two hundred and fifty billion dollars (over several years). This made Liu's plan the world's most well-funded public infrastructure project since the American president Ike Eisenhower constructed the American Interstate Highway System in the 1950s. In order to complete China's first high-speed rail line before the end of 2008, Liu led the Railway Ministry's employees to work around the clock. His habit of telling people that "To achieve a great leap, an entire generation must be sacrificed" earned him the nickname "Great Leap Liu". (Some of his detractors also called him "Lunatic Liu" for the pace of his work). While developing China's high-speed rail system, Liu also oversaw comprehensive upgrades of China's standard rail system, and he oversaw the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world's highest railway by elevation, but he regarded the development of China's high-speed rail system as his favourite project.