Title - MPs complain about railway projects non-implementation

New Delhi: The Lok Sabha saw members complaining on Monday that successive Railway Ministers have the habit of announcing projects many of which remain unimplemented for decades.Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad specifically referred to the East-West Dedicated Freight Corridor and lamented that work on the ambitious project had come to a standstill after he demitted office in 2009.Participating in a debate on Railway Budget, Prasad insisted that railway needed to raise freight carriage to generate revenue instead of resorting to fare hikes.Can anyone prove that the railways would turn around only by raising fares, he asked, adding that mere hiking of fares would not help the railways come out of the “mess”.Referring to the proposal to set up a Rail Tariff Authority, he said it would be opposed as “it is a conspiracy to privatise the railways. We will not allow it.”SP’s Rewati Raman Singh asked the government to raise freight carriage by slashing the charges, as both he and Prasad asked the government to fix a time-frame to complete all pending projects, instead of announcing new ones.

The RJD chief asked the government to explain why work on Dedicated Freight Corridor had “stopped after I left the Ministry.”

Maintaining that he had reduced the operating ratio and converted the largest transport network from loss-making to cash-surplus “without raising fares,” he said, “When I spoke of profits, I was challenged and there was an attempt to malign me.”

About his interactions with students from Harvard and IIM-Ahmedabad to learn as to how he turned around the railways, he said, “I was asked what will happen after I leave. I said I have set the course and my successors will follow…But the railways is again in a mess.”

Prasad said, “Every minister takes own course and blames each other. I will not name anybody.”

Prasad also took a dig at the BJP for terming the rail budget as ‘Rae Bareli budget’, saying “trains announced for Sonia Gandhi’s constituency will not remain there but will move to other destinations.”

Rewati Raman Singh (SP) sought a complete revamp of the railways, saying countries like China, Japan and Korea, which had started building the railway network much after India did, had developed very advanced system. “But we are operating a 19th century system in the 21st century,” he said.

He said in 1924, the railways contributed 74 per cent of the general budget but the situation was opposite now.

Lalit Mohan Suklabaidya (Cong) wanted projects for the northeast, like upgradation of the track connecting the Barak Valley and a wagon factory in Guwahati, to be accorded top priority and completed within a time-frame. (PTI)