After getting assurances from the Railways that two ongoing railway projects in Bihar were not being shelved, the Bihar government has submitted its wishlist for the upcoming Railway Budget for 2011-12 and sought enough funds for completion of all ongoing rail projects in the state.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar, himself a former railway minister, wrote a demi-official letter to railway minister Mamata Banerjee urging her to ensure that the two major projects underway — `2,025-crore rail diesel locomotive factory at Marhaurra in Chhapra and a `1,400-crore electric locomotive factory in Madhepura — be made operational at the earliest. Both the projects were brought to Bihar in 2007 when RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav was the railway minister. Rumours about their possible abandonment had sparked off protests from both the ruling and Opposition parties.
The list of proposals in Mr Kumar’s letter, shot off on Friday, include one Duranto train between Patna and Delhi, at least 10 new trains and extension of two trains. The new trains proposed by Kumar following his interactions with experts include Bhagalpur-Bikaner, Patna-Dehradun, Muzaffarpur-Pune and Rajgir-Howrah. The CM also asked Banerjee to develop Gaya and Hajipur railway stations into world-class facilities.
On the proposed rail-road bridge at Digha, Kumar urged Banerjee to conduct a review of the ongoing work at her own level for its time-bound completion.