Greater Reforms Mooted For Railways, Ports

The government should address the problems of funding future projects

The Economic Survey for 2002-03 has lauded the rapid progress made by the Rs 58,000 crore National Highway Development Project (NHDP) while stressing greater reforms for the Railways and ports.

The Golden Quadrilateral and the North-South, East-West corridors of the national highway project have notched some success by sticking to deadlines and cost estimates, the survey says.

The government worked out a balanced funding mechanism by setting up the Central Road Fund besides multilateral funding since it was obvious that user charges alone could not generate enough resources to undertake the