Lalu carries some excess baggage from last Budget

Even as he is expected to announce a few hundred kilometers of new lines and gauge conversions in this year’s Rail Budget on Monday...

Even as he is expected to announce a few hundred kilometers of new lines and gauge conversions in this year’s Rail Budget on Monday, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav could well explain what the ministry proposes to do with around 230 projects lying pending for years now.

With Public Private Partnerships (PPP) emerging as the ministry’s favourite mantra, Lalu could explore possibilities of funding these pending projects by seeking private investments. Another thing the minister could look at doing is setting target dates for completion of new lines and gauge conversion projects, something which has not happened in the past.

“Many of these projects have been announced over the past few decades for a variety of reasons ranging from social responsibility to purely political considerations. However, with Railways’ finances hitting an abyss, it became difficult to complete them. Even now, with Railways’ financial health improving, it would require outside support to see these projects through,” says a senior Rail Bhawan official.

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In one of its reports released in 2006, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had stated that going by their present rate of funding, Indian Railways will need 38 years to complete their pending new line projects and 15 years to complete gauge conversion projects.

Analysing the time taken and funding patterns of around 149 gauge conversions and new line projects included in Railways’ Works Programme for 2005-06, CAG’s report revealed that the ministry has a large number of projects going on for decades. The total estimated cost of these projects has over the years risen from Rs 39,287.13 crore to Rs 54,716.65 crore, an escalation of Rs 15429.52 crore. However, in sharp contrast, Indian Railways’ outlay for these 149 projects during 2005-06 was a only Rs 1,342 crore.

Officials say that the problem lies in the fact that despite having a large number of pending projects on the shelf, the ministry has been constantly introducing fresh projects every year. “Progress on a project depends on the kind of funds it is allocated on an annual basis. Certain projects, for whatever reasons, get relegated in favour of others,” says an official.