Fewer rollouts as austerity sets in

Bansal announces priority status for 347 ongoing projects

Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the first Congressman presenting a railway budget in 17 years, on Tuesday appeared to take a cautious approach towards rolling out new lines and projects.

Compared to his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi, who had announced 85 new line projects and 114 new line surveys in Railway Budget 2012-13, Bansal treaded the austerity path; he announced priority status for 347 ongoing projects. The new line projects the government would take up in 2013-14 include Bhupdeopur-Raigarh (Mand Colliery), Gevra Road-Pendra Road, Jaisalmer (Thiyat Hamira)-Sanu, Karaikal-Peralam, the Rewari-Rohtak new line extension up to Makrauli, Sultanpur-Kadipur and Thanjavur-Pattukkottai.

The new factories and workshops Bansal said would be set up include a forged wheel factory at Rae Bareli (in collaboration with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited), a greenfield mainline electrical multiple units manufacturing facility at Bhilwara (in collaboration with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited), a coach manufacturing unit in Sonepat district in Haryana, a midlife rehabilitation workshop at Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), a workshop for repair and rehabilitation of motorised bogies at Misrod (Madhya Pradesh) and a wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi (Odisha). For most of these facilities, the railways would tie up with the state governments concerned.

With expenditure reduction on his mind, Bansal has kept a realistic target of completing 500 km of new lines, 450 km of metre gauge/narrow gauge lines to broad gauge and 750 km of doubling during 2013-14. During the 11th Plan, the railways met the target of new lines and electrification, but fell short of the doubling and gauge conversion targets, achieving only 2,758 km and 5,321 km, respectively.

Bansal announced 60 stations would be upgraded to 'Adarsh' stations. Track structure would also be upgraded using 60-kg rails, 260-metre welded rail-panels and improved flash butt welding technology, he added.