THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: States should come forward for cost-sharing of rail development projects, so as to ensure pooling of necessary funds and also bringing down the time-frame for implementation of a project, opined K H Muniappa, Union Minister of State for Railways here on Monday. He added that Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were already on the track by earmarking up to Rs 1000 crore in the annual state budget for rail projects in their states from last year, while Maharashtra and Jharkhand had also followed suit.
Muniappa told a news conference here that the Railways needs at least Rs 1,60,000 crore for taking up rail development projects. ``The Railways is always thinking about the common man and many of the economically unviable schedules operated in many routes are due to social obligations. Despite the severe cash crunch, there is no plan to shelve rail development projects.
Our projects are committed. Funds from the Prime Minister’s Rail Vikas Yojana is banked upon heavily at present,” he said. ‘‘Against this backdrop, states should think about realising its rail needs on a fast mode by sharing the cost of the project. The Kerala Chief Minister has also evinced keen interest in the proposal,” Muniappa said. The concept is not a withdrawal of the Railways from providing funds to development projects. It is to ensure the state’s involvement,” he added.
Asked about the ongoing rift between the State Government and the Railways on the value to be given for acquired land for the Sabari Rail Project, with the former resorting to the award of market value and the latter insisting that only fair value could be sanctioned, Muniappa said that the proposed high-level committee under the state chief secretary was intended to sort out all such issues. “We will sit with all MPs and the Cabinet ministers in various states for a grassroots-level assessment of the needs of their respective region on the rail front.”
He also said that any fund earmarked for a particular project would be counted on the head itself, even when it was diverted to other projects under a same division. KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala, MPs K Sudhakaran and Anto Antony and Joseph Vazhakkan were also present at the news conference.
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