Title - Pending rail projects in Bihar to be completed: Muniyappa

Patna: Denying neglect of Bihar after departure of Lalu Prasad from Railway ministry, Minister of State for Railway K H Muniyappa on Sunday said the pending projects in the state would be completed on time at a cost of Rs 40,000 crore in the 12th Five Year Plan period."A sum of Rs 40,000 crore has been earmarked for Railway construction works in Bihar in the 12th Five Year Plan," he told reporters here.Muniyappa rubbished that Bihar is being neglected after departure of Lalu Prasad from the ministry. Prasad was Union Railway minister in the UPA-I government."This is not true," Muniyappa said.He said the Rail wheel factory in Prasad's Parliamentary constituency of Chapra, which is his pet project, is ready for inauguration.In addition, Rail projects in Sonepur, Harnaut, Samastipur and Patliputra station in Patna are also ready to start functioning, he said.He said work on railway bridges in Patna, Digha and Munger would be completed through allocation of appropriate fund. Bihar state government would be bearing 46 per cent cost of these bridges while the share of the Centre is 54 per cent. Work would start after allocation of money in 2013, he said.On the question of giving railway land to Bihar government in between Patna and Digha, he said a solution to this would be found soon.The Rail MOS said A, B and C grade stations would be modernised.Earlier, the minister reviewed functioning of East Central Railway zone by holding meeting of officials.