National railway projects in North-East, many of which have been lingering for more than a decade, “may get delayed” further due to paucity of funds, as was evident from the speech of Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi while presenting his maiden Railway Budget yesterday in Lok Sabha.
Trivedi said that budgetary support to Indian Railways has been pegged at a “modest level” of Rs 24,000 crore; as against a projected requirement of Rs 45,000 crore. The national projects in Kashmir and northeast region have also to be funded out of this. At least 10 railway projects in North East have been declared as ‘national projects’ in past years, and many of these projects have become victims of negligence.
“These projects (national projects in North East and Kashmir) alone need more than Rs 4,000 crore for the current year and may get delayed for want of adequate funding. I have already informed the august House of my detailed plans of investment on safety, modernization and capacity enhancement during the 12th Plan. With lower budgetary support, the deployment of capital would be lower to that extent”, said Trivedi.
The 2012-13 Railway Budget also did not meet any of the demands put forward by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi before the ministry in the run up to the budget, prominent among them was declaring Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) a dedicated railway zone for North East. The railway minister also did not pay any heed to the long term demand of the state and the region to announce super-fast trains connecting Guwahati with Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
With disappointment running high in the region, All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) burned copies of the Railway Budget as a mark of protest.
However, the budget touched upon the need to establish connectivity with Tripura with Kolkata, via Bangladesh, besides announcing two weekly express trains from North East; connecting Guwahati with Mumbai and Dibrugarh, in Upper Assam, with Kolkata.
“I propose to take up a project to connect Agartala with Akhaura in Bangladesh. This rail link will not only improve bilateral ties but will also help in establishing connectivity with inaccessible areas in northeast as journey from Kolkata to Tripura via Bangladesh, and will result in significant savings in time and distance travelled,” said Trivedi.