Amendment to Railways Act gets nod

CABINET DECIDES

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for an ordinance to amend the Railways Act, 1989, for expeditious land acquisition for special railway projects. The ordinance will be replaced by a Bill in the Budget session of Parliament.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved the doubling and electrifying the Udhna-Jalgaon rail line (306.93 km) at a total cost of Rs 714.60 crore.

This will provide additional capacity on this section for catering to the projected traffic to meet with the requirement of thermal power plants, particularly that in Wanakbhori, Gandhinagar and Ukai-Sonagadh. The projected traffic by 2010-11 is 35 trains each way against 23 to 26 being handled at present.

It will also reduce the lead involved in movement of coal from Korba area to Gujarat Power Plant by about 200 km as compared to movement via Itarsi-Bhopal-Ratlam. The work is likely to be completed within 5 years.

In another decision, the CCEA approved the Capacity Building Scheme for taking National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) forward across the country in all the states and union territories. The scheme has an outlay of Rs 313 crore for a period of three years and will be implemented by the Department of Information Technology.

The CCEA also approved "Research and Development Programme in Water Sector" with an outlay of Rs 295 crore for the 11th Plan.