Minister says he will provide action taken report on all previous promises
New Delhi : Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu will come up with an action taken report (ATR) reflecting the status of the promises made by him when he presents the next rail budget.
“No minister ever comes back with what has happened to all his announcements of the previous budget. But I will come back with an action taken report on all the promises,” said Prabhu in an interaction with media persons.
Prabhu, who is completing a year in office next week, said that 103 of the announcements made by him have already been implemented.
“We are entering into joint ventures with the states for the implementation of rail projects in their regions. The ownership pattern of these companies is flexible, but the objective is to speed up all the pending projects, and do the new projects in a time-bound manner,” he informed, while adding that these joint ventures will take off shortly after the approval of the Union cabinet. The states that have indicated their interest in developing railway projects through this route are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Odisha. But others are also likely to join in.
The minister, who has already said that as per his policy decision there would be no new trains announced in the next budget, said that this practice defies rationale. “We are announcing new trains whenever there is a need, and thus this practice has been discontinued,” he said. The next new major train is the New Delhi-Goa Rajdhani that is to be launched within a few days.
In the context of Maharashtra, Prabhu said that after discussions with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, it has been decided that projects with an outlay of at least Rs 10,000 crore will be taken up.
“We have discussed a large number of projects, including the MUTP-III that is critical for the movement of suburban traffic in Mumbai. This would be driven with full force,” he said and added that the state government has assured cooperation in the matter of resolving encroachment-related issues.
The Union minister also informed that the entire land in possession of the railways would be digitised by March next year. “Only then shall we have the full picture about this resource and it will help in planning its use,” he said.
