No new mega projects

PROJECTS: Construction of locomotive factories at Marhoura and Madhepura in Bihar to start by March.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday kept away from announcing any new mega project in the Interim Railway Budget for 2009-10. However, he said construction of diesel and electric locomotive factories at Marhoura and Madhepura in Bihar, respectively, would start by next month. This apart, construction of a rail wheel factory at Chapra, also in Bihar, is underway.

Keeping in with the demand from his home state, Lalu announced that a pre-feasibility study on running bullet trains between Patna and Delhi would be launched soon, adding in another route to an already long list of potential routes for bullet trains for which feasibility studies are already on.

As announced in the 2008-09 Railway Budget, feasibility studies are underway for bullet trains on the Delhi-Amritsar, Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Pune, Hyderabad-Vijaywada-Chennai, Chennai-Bangalore-Ernakulam and Howrah-Haldia routes.

The railway minister also informed Parliament that construction of the double-line eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor had started at Dehri-on-Son on February 10, while that of the western Dedicated Freight Corridor would also start this month.

Among his other achievements, the railway minister mentioned that during the year, the ailing Bharat Wagon Ltd, which had two units at Mokama and Muzaffarpur in Bihar, was transferred to the railway ministry. Also, in a bid to woo the Left-ruled West Bengal government, Prasad, following a request from the local public representatives, is looking at transferring Burn Standard, another sick company that has two units at Burnpur and Howrah in the state, to the ministry.

The railway minister also said that two railway divisions at Bhagalpur and Thawe in Bihar had been set up. This apart, he proposed 25 surveys for expansion of the Indian Railways network. These include 14 surveys for new lines, 3 for gauge conversion and 8 for line-doubling projects.

The ministry also earmarked Palej, Panoli, Kosamba and Kim in Gujarat, Roshanara Garden and Sultanpuri in Delhi, Shastrinagar and Model Town in Punjab and Vasarpadi in Tamil Nadu for construction of road underbridges and overbridges through the public-private partnership route on a priority basis.

The railway minister said surveys for construction of a new line from Jhargram to Purulia and extension of the Kolkata Metro had been completed. He said the West Bengal government agreed to contribute 50 per cent of the cost of the extension of Kolkata Metro.