Rail Budget: NE got a raw deal

NEW DELHI, February 26: For the second year in a row, the Railway Budget held out nothing new for the Northeast, provoking sharp reaction among the members from the region. Members belonging to the Assam Congress besides S K Bwismuthiary stormed to the Well of the House to lodge their protest. While no new trains were introduced in the region, the Railway Budget also did not have any provision to increase frequency of the existing trains from the region. The prominent among the demands for increasing the frequencies were the Rajdhani Express and the Guwahati-Dadar Express. The frequencies of both the trains were demanded to be converted to daily services. All that the Railway Budget tabled by the Minister, Mamata Banerjee, amidst an unprecedented pandemonium, offered for the region was extension of New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Bi-weekly Express to Dibrugarh town from one day to two days. The Chennai-Guwahati Bi-weekly Express has similarly been extended to Dibrugarh on one day. The services of the Guwahati-Lumding Express has been extended to Dimapur. While the Railway Minister announced a policy decision of not taking up any fresh new line proposal, the region during the forthcoming financial year would not see any new major gauge conversion project as well. The Railways during the year, plans to take up the Amguri-Tuli and Makum-Dangri sections for gauge conversion work. As for the ongoing projects, the Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar gauge conversion project would be extended from Badarpur to Baraigram. Besides, the New Moinaguri-Jogighopa line would be routed through Jhangrabandha to facilitate better communication links with neighbouring states, she disclosed. The project proposed to be taken up by the Railways that held some promise for the region is the proposal to sanction the survey work for setting new lines between Halem to Itanagar and Jiribam to Imphal. The effort may lead to inclusion of the two State capitals in the Railway map of the country. The Budget significantly this year made no allocation for the Bogibeel bridge, as well as for the Rangiya Rail Division. Meanwhile, Guwahati (Athgaon) road overbridge has been sanctioned in the Budget and a sum of Rs 10.40 crore earmarked for the project. At Bongaigaon, also, a road overbridge has been cleared and the project is estimated to cost Rs 40.42 lakh. Funds were also allocated for ongoing Kendukona-Rangia and Agtheri-Changsari overbridge. Later, justifying the Railway's policy, the chairman of the Railway board, Ashok Kumar said that no new projects were taken up in the Northeast, because the Railways had a long list of pending projects to execute. However, the members in the Lok Sabha did not share his views, as they charged the Railway Minister of giving a raw deal to the Northeast. The Assam Congress president, Tarun Gogoi, leading his colleagues including Paban Singh Ghatowar, Bijoy Krishna Handique, Abdul Hamid reached the Well of the House, while Madhab Rajbongshi and S K Bwiswmutiary were seen squatting on the floor of the House near the well. On the visitors gallery was the Opposition leader from the State, Silvius Condpan. Later reacting to the Railway Budget, the ruling AGP members, Arun Kumar Sarma and Joyashree Goswami Mahanta said it was an insult to the people of the Northeast. "The people of our region have been deceived for second time," said Sarma. The AGP members criticising the non-inclusion of funds for the Bogibeel bridge said the rate at which funds were being sanctioned for the road-cum-rail bridge estimated to cost Rs 1,000 crore. It would take over 200 years to complete it.