The Indian Railways is not able to achieve the “desired level of progress due to limited availability of resources’’, Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy said at a Consultative Committee meeting of the Members of Parliament for the Ministry of Railways.
The Minister also said that the available funds are “distributed over large number of projects’’.
Noting that the Indian Railways is able to provide only about Rs 12,000 crore to new line and gauge conversion projects, Roy told the Members of Parliament that the Ministry of Railways has requested the various state governments to “share the cost of the projects falling in their respective states’’.
Many states have come forward in this regard and at present 35 projects are under construction under such cost-sharing arrangement, he said.
“Some remunerative projects are proposed to be executed through public-private partnership,” he said.
The Ministry has also requested the Planning Commission to enhance the budgetary support for Railways.
Land acquisition issues
Roy said that the Railways intend to set up a number of factories for the manufacturing of locomotives, coaches and wagons. These proposals are in various stages of progress.
However, some of the projects are getting affected due to the delay in land acquisition, especially clearance required for a forest land, he said.