Title - ‘There will be funds for railway development’

Behrampore MP and the minister of state for Railways Mr Adhir Chowdhury said that the Union government is planning to allot adequate funds for development of the Railways.  For infrastructure development in the country the Centre is going to utilise a huge sum of Rs 50 lakh crores out of which the Railways will be allotted funds to carry out development projects, the minister said here today.   Citing priority areas where his ministry is going to spend funds, he informed that at present there are around 1,400 unmanned level crossings across the country where safety issues will be addressed. Funds will also be utilised with priority on the pro-active schemes to tackle apprehended terror attacks, the minister added. Currently, the Railways will neither initiate highly expensive schemes nor withdraw the on-going projects, Mr Chowdhury informed, pleading for his ministry’s policy of status quo for the time being in order to tide over the financial hardship faced by the railways. Putting the blame for this on the erstwhile Trinamul ministers of the Railways, the Congress minister said, several multi-crores projects were approved by them without taking into account the funds capacity of the Railways.