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The Union Minister of Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad has sought cooperation from Chief Ministers of all the states for timely and successful completion of all railway projects. Addressing the 51st meeting of the National Development Council, here today, Shri Prasad emphasized the need for financial cooperation from state governments to meet the demands for new railway links and over all development of railway network infrastructure in their respective states. The Indian Railways requires more than Rs.46000 crores for its existing projects and there is a need for financial help from state governments to complete these projects in a time-bound manner, he added. As many states are coming forward with financial assistance, the Minister urged other states too to render their full cooperation in completing the pending projects.
The Minister further said that for the safety in both railway and road transport sectors, there is an urgent need for construction of Road Over Bridge (ROB) for which 50 percent of expenditure is to be met by the state government and 50 percent by the Indian Railways. But construction on many ROBs could not be completed due to state governments’ inability to release the funds for this purpose. As per the undertaking, the 50 percent of expenditure cost provided by the Indian Railways are being spent on State Railway Police by the respective state government. The Minister suggested that if the state governments are unable to provide the funds, the Indian Railways can go ahead with the construction of ROBs at its own provided undertaking is given by the state governments in this regard.
BSC:HK:TR
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