Not toeing the line of predecessor Mamata Banerjee, railway minister Dinesh Trivedi on Wednesday tried to reach out to many parts of the country, beyond Kolkata. In the last two railway budgets presented by the Trinamool Congress chief, references and schemes for Kolkata were notable.
The minister on Wednesday announced new lines worth Rs 1 lakh crore, besides introducing 75 express trains and 21 passenger trains.
The list of new projects includes a rail line between Agartala and Akura in Bangladesh. Additional services in suburban trains in Mumbai, Kolkata Metro and in Chennai have been announced. Mumbai would also get elevated rail corridors in the times to come.
The budget aimed at completing 45 new lines covering 725 km in 2012-13, while new line surveys for 111 lines are expected to be completed in the same period. Another 750 km of rail line would be converted to double-lines next year.
While Trivedi maintained he tried to address requests from across the country, he also asked state governments “to come forward for sharing the cost of the respective projects and provide free land to facilitate early construction of projects.”
Last year, the railways planned to put new lines of 1,000 km but missed the target by 30 per cent.
An outlay of Rs 6,872 crore has been proposed in the budget for new lines against Rs 9,583 crore in the previous year.
More From This Section
Trivedi also proposed formation of an Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation and said the railways would make efforts to add special coaches for differently abled persons to every mail and express train. The railways have successfully manufactured about 2,100 such coaches, he added.
The railways also plan some special projects for Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast.