Gauhati HC directs Railways to fix realistic target

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Gauhati High Court has directed North East Frontier Railway to fix a realistic target for the completion of Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge project.
A division bench of Chief Justice A K Goel and Justice A K Goswami, hearing a PIL petition on the delay of the project recently, directed Railways to take up the matter for immediate consideration and fix a realistic target date by which the project may be completed.
The Court fixed May 8 for the next hearing and directed the standing counsel of the Railways to submit the present status of the project and its future plan of action on the next hearing date.

The petition alleged that the delay in Silchar�Lumding Broad Gauge project which was inaugurated with much fanfare in 1996 and was later declared a national project in 2004, had an adverse affect on the national exchequer as the project cost has shot up from Rs 648 crore to Rs 4,255.37 crore.
The petitioners pointed out that in April 1996, the then Prime Minister H D Devegowda and Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had come to Silchar to lay the foundation of Silchar�Lumding BG project under the Unigauge project of the Government to convert all MG routes to BG.
All the MGs have been converted to BGs in the State within the stipulated time barring the Silchar�Lumding route.