Less than a week after the Kachiguda-Bangalore Express derailed, killing 20 people, PM Vajpayee today launched a line-doubling project near the accident site.The doubling of the 151-km Gooty-Pullampetta line was one of the three projects launched by the PM in various parts of the country through video conferencing from his Race Course residence.Launched under the Rs 15,000-crore Rashtriya Rail Vikas Yojana, the other projects are construction of the Munger rail-cum-road bridge on river Ganga in Bihar and a gauge conversion project of the 305-km Gandhidham-Palanpur rail in Gujarat. As Vajpayee pushed a button in the Capital, construction was seen commencing at all the three spots. To be completed in five years, Vajpayee said these projects — part of the rail Golden Quadrilateral — would accelerate development and expand the rail network. The GQ, connecting the four metros, carries 55 per cent of passenger traffic and two-thirds of goods traffic.The Prime Minister said the linking of four metros through the GQ project would ‘‘enhance the speed of goods and passenger trains and reduce pollution’’. The Government, he said, is laying utmost stress on the safety and security of passengers. Moreover, the technical and administrative aspects are being looked into.‘‘Like the development of roads, these projects would go a long way to strengthen, expand and modernise the rail network and connect them to the ports,’’ Vajpayee said in his speech.Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said the Asian Development Bank had last week cleared a loan of $313.6 million for these projects. The RRVY, he said, included projects to ensure higher speed of mail, express and freight trains, providing rail connectivity to ports, development of corridors to the hinterland, construction of four mega bridges and accelerated completion of other important projects. The GQ project will enable freight trains to run at 100 km per hour and decongest the saturated network on the metro routes.Besides the one on Ganga in Munger that was inaugurated today, the three other mega bridges are a rail-cum-road bridge on river Brahmaputra at Bogibeel in Assam, one on river Ganga connecting Dighaghat and Sonepur and one over river Kosi between Nirmali and Bhaptiahi.On the ‘‘last mile project’’, Kumar said certain important sanctioned projects were in the last stages of completion. Rs 868 crore had been allocated for these during 2001-02. During the current year, an additional need of Rs 808 crore had been projected.
