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The Union Minister of Railways, Shri Lalu Prasad, has said that action plan was under formulation for all-round expansion of rail line capacity, modernization and time-bound completion of ongoing projects. Talking to a delegation of Members of Orissa State Legislative Assembly, headed by Speaker, Shri Maheshwar Mohanty, Shri Lalu Prasad said that there would not be dearth of resources in accomplishing railway projects and taking up new ones in keeping with the Common Minimum Programme of the Government. He said as directed by the Prime Minister, the action plan would be presented to the Planning Commission for allocation of additional resources for development and modernization of Indian Railways in keeping with the emerging globalization of Indian economy. In this connection, the Railway Minister assured the delegation that once the action plan was approved, all the ongoing projects in Orissa would be completed as per the target.
Talking of the resource crunch faced by the Railways, the Minister said that the Railways had a shelf of 235 ongoing projects worth Rs.46,000 crores. Besides, there were demands from representatives of the people for new lines, gauge conversions, doubling, electrification, rail over bridges and rail under bridges. All these would be taken care of once the action plan was formulated and adequate funds provided. As for a Memorandum presented by the delegation, the Minister informed them that there were 25 ongoing projects in Orissa for which a sum of Rs.6241 crores was needed, out of which, Rs.2786 crores has so far been spent and Rs.3241 crores more were needed. Minister further informed the delegates that the current formula for state-wise allocation of funds for completion of railway projects was being rationalized in order to provide a time-bound completion of ongoing projects in addition to ensuring remote area connectivity of rail network. He also informed the delegates that rail over bridges and rail under bridges would be completed by railways if the states agreed not to charge 50 per cent from the railways towards salary and establishment expenditure on account of the Government Railway Police which were the State Police detailed on Railways to look after law and order situation. The Railway Minister said that Member Engineering would be detailed to Orissa for review of various railway projects there.
The charter of demands contained in the Memorandum relate to new lines, completion of time bound ongoing rail lines, doubling, bridge on river Mahananda, gauge conversion works and electrification.
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