Dhumal upset with rail budget

Though Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has chosen to include the Bhanupali-Mandi-Kullu-Manali-Leh railway line as one of the 114 “socially desirable” projects,Dhumal said,“I wish the railway minister had realised the importance of this project from the strategic point of view too.”

Dhumal had earlier written to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on according priority to the project.

He pointed out,“Our neighbour China has constructed a railway line from Beijing to Lhasa and is still expanding its rail and road networks towards India. It’s high time the Government of India stopped ignoring the construction of a rail line of strategic importance. This is really unfortunate.”

Dhumal said the ministry should have done thorough homework on Himachal’s needs,and proposed new projects that would have benefited the state economically and the country strategically.

Referring to the the Nangal-Talwara rail line on which work was started nearly two decades ago,he said: “When I met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,he had assured me to get the work completed by 2008. But nothing was done. Similarly,there is no mention of the Bhanupali-Beri line despite the state government having made a provision of Rs 62 crore for it during the last two years.”

The CM said the inclusion of the Bilaspur-Leh route in the socially desirable rail connectivity proposals,which will be surveyed and then sent to the Planning Commission for approval,was a mockery.

The Congress in Himachal is,however,happy with the budget and has thanked the PM,UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and two Union ministers from the state,Virbhadra Singh and Anand Sharma,for this.

Congress president Kaul Singh Thakur and CLP leader Vidya Stokes said the efforts of the Congress to get a fair deal for the state had finally paid off.

MoU in April: IIC Holding

Private infrastructure company IIC Holding,which has been lobbying for the Manali-Leh railway line project,said the company was all set up to take up the job of preparing a detailed project report after April 2010. “In our talks with the railway ministry,the company has been given to understand that an MoU will be signed in April 2010 and thereafter we can go ahead with the preliminaries,” said Rajiv Mathur,chief executive officer of the company. The 1,400-km railway line will have participation of teams from 34 countries,including the USA,Korea,Germany,Russia and Switzerland. The deadline for the project is 2018. French project managers will be on the job to handle the construction. There will be underground tunnels and thermal concrete work,and the project would cost Rs 1,75,000 crore,said Mathur.