After West Bengal and Bihar hogged the limelight in the Rail Budgets for more than a decade, a change of fortune is now imminent. Union railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is all set to bring the focus on his home state Punjab and northern region in his maiden budgetary proposal to be submitted this month.
After giving a pair of additional Shatabdi trains to his parliamentary constituency Chandigarh, Mr Bansal would propose a project for doubling of the broad gauge line between Palampur and Samakhiali, which is 247.3 km long, to connect Punjab and Himachal Pradesh in the Budget. As per the norms, Mr Bansal would seek the approval of the Union Cabinet in its meeting on Thursday before he unveils the proposal in the Rail Budget.
The ministry of railways recently came back to the Congress after nearly 16 years during which it had been headed by nominees of West Bengal-based Trinamul Congress, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mr Nitish Kumar, who is now Bihar chief minister. Mr Bansal apparently is seeking to undo the neglect of the northern region in all these years. He is also known to travel to Chandigarh every weekend by trains (Shatabdi).
Also, the Cabinet will take few more proposals to boost the infrastructure capacity of the railways specifically to boost the last mile connectivity so that it can carry more freight, which is considered bread and butter of the railways.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in its meeting on Thursday is likely to clear two more proposals, which include conversion into broad gauge lines between Gevera Road and Pandara Road (212.7 km) and Raigarh (Mannd colliery to Bhupdeopour railways station (63 km) in Chhattisgarh in the southeast central zone. It may be recalled that Mr Bansal had stated that the ministry would focus on improvement of the rail infrastructure in the coming year.