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ECR pins hope on Bansal for completion of projects by nikhilndls on 03 January, 2013 - 12:00 PM
avatar nikhilndls ECR pins hope on Bansal for completion of projects on 03 January, 2013 - 12:00 PM

PATNA: East Central Railway (ECR) has pinned hopes on railway minister Pawan Bansal for the early completion of railway projects worth about Rs 35,000 crore being carried out in Bihar.

These projects, which were sanctioned during the tenures of two former railway ministers from Bihar - Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad - are being delayed mainly due to paucity of funds or lack of initiative by the Railway Board.

With the change of guard in the railway ministry sometime back, ECR hopes Bansal would do justice with the pending railway projects in the state.

According to ECR GM B P Khare, the zone got an allocation of about Rs 1,500 crore in the current fiscal year for the railway projects in Bihar.

It needs about Rs 12,000 crore to expedite completion of these projects.

Khare maintained that the ECR has been carrying out railway projects with the resources available with the zone. He said efforts were still on to complete major railway projects within the stipulated period.

Sources said railways had earlier conceptualized Bihar as the most developed state as well as an ancillary zone of Indian Railways. Bihar, which remained backward from the point of view of development of railways, is likely to be the main hub of all major component factories of railways, including wheel factory, electric and diesel locomotives and modern maintenance workshops, they said.

The railways had decided to develop north Bihar on the pattern of Bangalore, Hardwar and Bhopal. The proposed factories duly approved by the Planning Commission and Railway Board, like the wheel factory at Chhapra (Rs 1,417 crore), diesel locomotive factory at Marhaura (Rs 2,052 crore), electric locomotive factory at Madhepura (Rs 1,293 crore), coach maintenance workshop at Harnaut (Rs 338 crore), DEMU maintenance depot at Sonepur (Rs 21crore), goods wagon repair workshop at Sonepur (Rs 92 crore) and wagon repair workshop at Samastipur (Rs 32 crore), would give a new face to Bihar after their early completion, an ECR official said.

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