Railway Budget 2016: Quicken pending projects, says divisional authority

TIRUNELVELI: There is not much cheer for the southern districts of Tamil Nadu when it comes to the railway projects as one of the much awaited track-doubling project between Madurai-Virudhunagar-Mani yachi-Thoothukudi and Maniyachi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil in the region, announced at the total cost of Rs 2,500 crore in the railway budget last year is yet to take off.

The sole representative in the Union Cabinet from Tamil Nadu, Mr Pon Radhakrishnan from Kanyakumari constituency, who was credited for the announcement of the doubling of tracks projects between Madurai-Thoothukudi-Tirunelveli and Nagercoil in the last railway budget, however, has now been blamed for having failed to convert the budgetary announcement into action.

According to Thoothukudi Railway Users’ Associaion, secretary, M Brahman ayag am, the project bifurcated into two, Madurai-Maniyachi-Thoothukudi (80-Km) and Maniyachi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil (170-Km) in the 2015-2016 railway budget were announced at an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore and Rs 1,700 crore respectively.  

“The first year’s allocation of Rs 18.29 crore for the Madurai-Maniyachi-Thoothukudi section and Rs 38.97 crore for the Maniyachi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil too have been announced in the railway budget last year,’ recalled Brahmanayagam, who demanded a white paper on the amount spent for the tracks doubling projects during the last 12 months since the presentation of the railway budget in February last year.

However, according to Southern Railway sources, the doubling of tracks projects announced in last year’s railway budget could not be taken up due to paucity of funds and hence the Indian Railway Board has announced 100 projects including the doubling of tracks projects between Madurai-Thoothukudi-Tirunelveli-Nagercoil to be implemented through private investments under EBR mode (Extra budgetary Resource).

“Hence the location survey and commercial survey to fix the rate of returns to suit the investors have been done in these two sectors,” explained a Southern railway official, who too is hopeful of implementing the doubling project once an investment source is identified.

The railway users in the southern districts, however, wanted the Indian railway to take up the projects by including these projects in this year’s budget instead of waiting for private investment.