Ms Mamata Banerjee, the Union Minister of Railways, announced the Railway Budget on 3 July 2009 for the current fiscal.
In her budget, the Minister has proposed an outlay of Rs 40,745 crore for 2009-2010. An amount of Rs.15, 675 crore is to be arranged through internal resources and Rs 9, 170 crore from market borrowings. The Ministry will also go for issue of tax free bonds for resource generation.
An amount of Rs 2,921 crore is to be allocated for new line, Rs 1,750 crore for gauge conversion, Rs 1,102 crore for passenger amenities, Rs 335 crore for the construction of staff quarters and Rs 424 crore for staff amenities. The Ministry has sought additional funds to the tune of Rs 1,949 crore from the Ministry of Finance for 11 railway projects in Jammu & Kashmir and the North East.
Some of the announcements made by the Minister are:
* Foundation stone will be laid for development of Eastern Industrial Corridor alongside the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.
* A new factory will come up at Kanchrapara-Halisahar Railway complex with annual capacity of 500 EMU/MEMU and Metro coaches per annum in JV/PPP mode.
* To set up a 1,000 MW power plant at Adra (West Bengal) with Ministry of Power.
* Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge and gauge conversion of Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam, Rangia-Murkongselek declared as national projects.
* Construction of national project in Sikkim from Sivok to Rangpo to be entrusted to IRCON for time bound completion. The surveys for new lines connecting Gangtok and Shillong have been completed and the proposals will be further processed for necessary clearances.
* Quazigund-Anantnag line to be completed by August 2009 and will be inaugurated soon.
* Railway Ministry’s to process 53 new rail connectivity proposals this fiscal.
* 50 stations to be developed into world class stations with international level facilities. These include CST Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Howrah, Sealdah, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, Lucknow, Varanasi, Amritsar, Kanpur, Guwahati, Jaipur, Chennai Central, Thiruvananthapuram Central, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Bangalore City, Baiyapanahali (Bangalore), Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Habibganj, Gaya Jn, Agra Cantt, Mathura Jn, Chandigarh, Kolkata, New Jalpaiguri, Majerhat, Mangalore, Porbandar, Anand Vihar, Brijwasan, Ajmer Jn, and Puri.
* Construction of Multi-Functional Complexes (MFCs) in station premises for providing rail users facilities like shopping, food stalls and restaurants. The 49 stations to be developed as MFCs are: Alipurduar, Allahabad, Anandpur Sahib, Banspani, Bikaner, Bilaspur, Cuttack, Darjeeling, Dehradun, Digha, Durg, Ernakulum, Gandhidham, Ganga Sagar, Ghatsila, Gwalior, Hajur Sahib, Hubli, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jammu Tawi, Jasidih, Jhansi, Jodhpur, Kanyakumari, Kathgodam, Katra, Khajuraho, Madurai, Manmad, Mysore, Nanded, Nasik, Palakkad, Parasnath, Raebareily, Raipur, Rajgir, Rameshwaram, Ranchi, Shirdi, Silchar, Tarapith, Tiruchirapalli, Udaipur, Ujjain, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam.
* Construction of new lines spanning 250 km. These include
1. Ghoramara-Dumka of Deogarh-Dumka
2. Bishnupur-Gokulnagar of Tarakeshwar-Bishnupur.
3. Lanjigarh-Bhawanipatna of Lanjigarh-Junagarh
4. Quazigund-Anantnag of Udhampr-Baramulla.
5. Rewari-Jhajjar of Rewari-Rohtak.
6. Kottur-Harihar.
7. Churaru Takrala-Amb Andaura of Nangal Dam-Talwara.
Source : ProjectsToday
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