Chief Minister Hemant Soren with senior officials of the Government met railway officials to review stalled or slow progressing railway projects in Jharkhand. The projects are languishing at different stages in the want of various clearances, lack of funds and escalated cost over the years.
“The Railway officials said that work on nearly 250 km has been completed while on other 350 km it is in progress. We also reviewed the stopped and slow moving projects and tried to identify specific reasons behind it,” said a senior official present in the meeting.
The CM also instructed the officials that work on the projects should not be affected by the share due from the State. He also directed land Reform Department for taking the projects on priority. At the same time the CM also sought from the railway for increasing
passage amenities in accordance with revenue it gets from Jharkhand. General Manager of East-Central Railway Madhuresh Kumar assured that by November additional 130 km of line would be completed.
The six projects include the Koderma-Ranchi via Barkakana line (189km), lohardaga-Tori (137km), Koderma-Giridih (105km), Deoghar-Dumka (50km), Dumka-Rampurhat (64km) and Koderma-Tilaiya railway line (15km). Of these, the ones whose work has been stalled altogether are the Koderma-Ranchi, Ranchi-lohardaga-Tori and Deoghar-Dumka
railway line.
The projects are being carried out jointly by the Railway Ministry and the State for over a decade. However due to delay both the part of the Ministry and State Government in land acquisition and other statuary clearances cost of the rail
projects escalated enormously. In the meantime, some altercations in the MoU singed have also taken place which has revised the contribution from the State into the projects.
“The meeting was called as the Center wanted to speed-up the projects ongoing in different States. They want to put infrastructure projects on top priority,” added the official.