From CK Nayak
New Delhi: While road network has made good progress in Meghalaya in the past few years, similar advancement has not been seen in case of the much-needed rail lines in the landlocked hill state.
Among the three major rail projects proposed in the State, only the 19.75-km Dudhnoi-Mendipathar line has made good progress.
Out of the Rs 175.43 crore anticipated cost, a major amount of Rs 135.43 crore has already been spent by March end and there is already an outlay of Rs 40 crore for 2013-14, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Railways, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said in reply to a question of former Union Minister of State and Shillong MP Vincent H Pala in Lok Sabha on Saturday.
The other major project, the 21.5-km Tetelia-Byrnihat rail line is not making much progress with only Rs 153 crore spend last fiscal out of the estimated project cost of Rs 385.2 crore. The project is not expected to make much advance since only Rs 50 crore has been kept as the outlay for 2013-14, Chowdhury said.
But among all the three rail projects, the least progress has been made in case of the big ticket Byrnihat-Shillong project with 108 km of length and Rs 4083.02 crore as proposed cost. Only Rs 2.5 crore was spent on this project last fiscal and only Rs one crore has been kept for this financial year, the Union MoS said.
While rail projects are not making good progress in Meghalaya and other North Eastern states, the region did not receive any major project in this year’s Railway budget.
On the other hand the hike of over five per cent on freight rate has hit the landlocked region very hard since most of the supplies mainly of the essential commodities are brought through the railway network.
Nearly 66 per cent of the essential goods of North East India come through railways while 30 per cent come through roadways. Waterways account for only three per cent and one per cent comes through airways.
In this year’s Railway budget there was no major announcement for the Dudhnoi-Mendipathar, Byrnihat-Shillong and Tetelia-Byrnihat rail lines.
The first project was expected to be completed this year itself.
There was no mention of Pala-Sutnga rail lines in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills, which was a pet project of Pala himself.
Pala had exerted pressure on the then Rail Minister Mamata Banerjee to announce this project in the Khasi- Jaintia Hills in last year’s railway budget.
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal himself had admitted lack of funds for railway projects in the region. He, however, had hoped that the Finance Ministry will provide enough funds for rail projects in the North East.
Railway lines in Meghalaya are of special significance since the landlocked state does not have a single inch of rail track. Secondly, the rail lines could provide big relief to the extremely congested National Highway 44 dotted with cement plants and coal belts.