Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has had a remarkably busy year, even by her own standards. Since presenting her first railway budget as a minister in the United Progressive Alliance government last July, she has kept herself busy flagging off trains, especially in West Bengal.
As on December 30, 35 new passenger trains, seven superfast Duronto Express and one ‘Yuva’ train were introduced, while 17 trains were extended and the frequency of eight increased.
Weekends have generally been reserved for attending ceremonies on infrastructure projects announced in the Budget. The problem is they have largely remained just that — after the ceremonies were over and the lights dimmed, most the projects went back into darkness.
As Banerjee gets ready to deliver her second railway budget later this month, many of the infrastructure projects are yet to obtain governmental approval. Some schemes have been hurriedly pushed through only in the last few weeks, possibly because the railway minister needs to improve her ‘Action Taken’ report.
Among the larger infrastructure ventures that Banerjee had announced, the proposal to set up a coach factory at the Kanchrapara-Halisahar railway complex near Kolkata had evinced significant interest. However, eight months after the idea was mooted, it’s only next week that the details would be submitted for Cabinet approval.
The proposed takeover of Kolkata-based wagon maker Burn Standard by the railways, too, is yet to be taken to the Cabinet for approval. Officials at the Ministry of Heavy Industries, the current custodian of Burn Standard, have said that state-owned RITES, a railway engineering and consultancy firm, has been appointed to undertake due diligence to assess the assets and liabilities of the wagon maker.
“RITES is expected to submit its report in the next 15-20 days, after which a final Cabinet approval will be sought. We are hopeful that the approval (for the takeover) will be given this financial year,” an official said.
Railway ministry sources admit that another landmark proposal to have world-class facilities in about 50 railway stations hasn’t taken off yet. The initial plan was to develop these facilities through the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
“The idea was to try the model at the New Delhi and Hyderabad railway stations and then to replicate them elsewhere. But no great progress has been made so far,” sources said.
The much-touted ‘Kisan Vision’ project, which according to Banerjee was “the contribution railways proposed to make to the second green revolution”, has also failed to make much headway.
Although in November last year, the railway minister had laid the foundation stone for the first rail-linked perishable cargo centre at Singur in West Bengal, the future blueprint for the scheme was still unclear, indicated officials at Concor (Container Corporation of India). Fresh and Healthy Enterprises, a subsidiary of Concor, has been designated to set up these cold-storage facilities under the ‘Kisan Vision’ project.
“The railways approached us about two months ago to become a part of this project. So far, only the Singur facility has been finalised and we are working on making the designs for this,” a senior official at Concor said.
Singur is the place where the Tatas had initially intended to manufacture their small car Nano and eventually had to relocate elsewhere after a sustained opposition, primarily led by Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.
Among the other schemes that have or are being hurriedly pushed through include the launch of the mobile ticketing van scheme — ‘Mushkil Aasaan’ — in January. Last week, the railway ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for developing healthcare infrastructure along the railway network nationwide. Both these schemes were mentioned in Banerjee's budget speech last year.
