Railway minister Dinesh Trivedi made an impassioned plea for augmenting rail infrastructure in the border areas, in an implicit reference to China building a network of rails and roads in areas bordering India’s north-eastern states.
In the same breath, he pitched for evolving a national policy for railways, so that there is continuity of policy across successive governments and policies can be executed without them falling a victim to partisan politics.
“... the time has come to think of a national policy for railways, just as we have one for defence and for external affairs,” Mr Trivedi said on Wednesday in his budget speech in Lok Sabha.
Uncharacteristically for a railway minister, Mr Trivedi spoke about how the geopolitical situation on borders arising out of building of state-of-art road and rail network by neighbouring countries “requires a matching response.” The railways, he continued, must remain in a state of preparedness to move men and machines to border areas.
Mr Trivedi sought to impress upon the relevant ministries of the government, not least of all the ministry of finance, that it was, therefore, necessary to undertake projects of national importance on priority and to ensure adequate funding.
Similarly, he argued for liberal funds for connecting the remote and backward areas in Jammu and Kashmir and the north-eastern states, without worrying about the return on investment or such other factors. He warned that the projects in J&K and in the Northeast, which required more than `4,000 crores for the current year, may get delayed for want of adequate funding.