Sufficient funds allocated for Eastern Railway, says official

Eastern Railway today said it has been allocated "sufficient" funds in the Union Budget for 2018-19.
Eastern Railway general manager Harindra Rao said Rs 2,957 crore have been allotted for planhead expenditure for the fiscal 2018-19, which is Rs 125 crore more than what the zonal railway got for 2017-18.
"Working expenses for the coming fiscal has also been raised to Rs 9,839 crore from the current fiscal's Rs 9,194 crore," Rao told newspersons here.
He said that as part of the planhead expenditure, Rs 50.01 crore has been proposed to be given to Eastern Railway for passenger comfort; while for new lines, guage conversion and doubling, the allocation would be Rs 1,077 crore, a hike of Rs 75 crore from the current fiscal.

"There is no shortage of funds, whether it is for planhead or for working expenses," he said.
Stating that the Railways was giving priority to safety, infrastructure and passenger amenities, Rao said that Kolkata International Terminal will be set up at the Kolkata station with all immigration and customs facilities.
Two trains to Bangladesh, one to Dhaka and the other to Khulna, operate from Kolkata station.
He said that to ease congestion, surveys for two railway flyovers at Sitarampur and Masagram have been sanctioned in the budget.