The railways ministry has asked the central government to directly fund two major projects, which are closely linked to the latter's efforts to tackle law and order problems in the sensitive states of Jammu & Kashmir and Assam.
The issue is expected to come up before the cabinet for approval. These projects are the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula line costing Rs 2,500 crore and the Rs 1,000 crore rail-road bridge over the Brahmaputra near Dibrugarh in Assam.
The railways has said that these projects will be unremunerative and cost much more than it cannot afford to handle within its budgetary resources. It has sought central funding to the extent of Rs 400 crore a year for the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula line.
The 1998-99 railway budget has a provision of Rs 75 crore for the Baramula line project. A similar provision was made in the railway budget of 1997-98. But these provisions are much less than the funding requirement of the project.
The railway ministry is already executing a line project, the Jammu-Udhampur line, in J&K. A provision of Rs 45 crore has been made for this in this year's budget.
The line will be completed next year and needs an additional Rs 60 crore which will be provided for in the 1999-2000 budget of the railways, Rail Bhavan sources said. An amount of Rs 250 crore has already been spent on this project.
The railways will be spending Rs 500 crore on new line projects this year. Though this represents a 20 per cent increase over the last year's provision of Rs 400 crore, the amount is not enough to meet the requirements.
For instance, the railways have initiated construction and survey work on projects costing Rs 6,000 crore in the north eastern region. Railway minister Nitish Kumar recently assured the Lok Sabha that 10 per cent of the budgetary support of Rs 2,200 crore given to the railways has been earmarked for the north east region.
But this amount is far from adequate.
The railway ministry is in the process of making presentations to the home ministry, which looks after the interests of the north east, on the need for direct central funding for projects in this region.
The railway budget has also made provisions of Rs 60 crore for the Jogipara bridge near Guwahati and Rs 60 crore for two projects in Orissa which are the Daitari-Banspani and Talcher-Sambalpur lines.
Another amount of Rs 21 crore has been allocated for Guna-Etawa line project and Rs 27 crore for the line project in Amrawati in Maharashtra.
These allocations are besides a provision of Rs 100 crore for the metropolitan rail network in Mumbai.
