Govt seeks WB, ADB help

PATNA: Apart from taking up anambitious project for the expansion, renovation and augmentation of 5,000 km ofrailway tracks in the next three years, the railways have taken up preliminarywork to construct a mega rail-cum-road bridge on the Kosi river in Darbhanga andSaharsa zones in Bihar in collaboration with the National Highway Authority ofIndia (NHAI) to restore the Nirmali-Supaul railway line, which was washed awayby swirling waters of Kosi in the late 1940s.Railway minister Nitish Kumarsaid here on Thursday that the rail-road bridge on the Kosi river will be one ofthe four mega-bridge constructions being undertaken by the railways.Whilework on the mega bridge on the Ganga at Patna has already started at a cost ofRs 650 crore, the foundation stone for the rail-road bridge project, estimatedto cost Rs 1,700 crore, across Brahmputra river at Bogibil in Assam has alreadybeen laid. The railways have already submitted a project for the construction ofrail-road bridge across the Ganga in Munger at a cost of Rs 900 crore for earlyclearance.Kumar said the fund will not be a big problem for thetrack-expansion projects and construction of mega rail-cum-road bridges. Therailways have already started negotiations with multi-lateral agencies like theWorld Bank (WB) and ADB for long-term financial assistance to complete theseprojects. “Apart from this, the Union government will provide budgetarysupport of Rs 300 crore per year for the next three years to complete expansionprogramme regarding 5000 km of railway tracks in the country and also internalresources of the railways,� he said.According to him, the NHAI,which is engaged in constructing golden quadri-lateral road project to connectnorth, south, east and west by four-lane national highway, has also taken up thework on Lucknow-Guwahati national highway for connecting missing link betweenDarbhanga-Forbesganj to connect north to east, bordering Nepal. Theauthority will have to construct a large number of bridges on the difficult Kosiand other rivers. The railways have utilised the opportunity to restore snappedrail links between Nirmali and Supaul, he said.Kumar said the NHAI and therailways have started joint operations for the survey and data collection tocomplete the mega rail-road bridge project. For this, model tests are beingcarried in the Pune research laboratory. Apart from constructing a number ofguide embankments in and around Kosi river at a cost of Rs 50 crore by the NHAI,the railways will construct bridge structures on Kosi at an estimated cost of Rs330 crore.This mega project will restore railway line from Nirmali toSupaul via Baptiyahi and Tharbhitha railway stations, which had been wiped outover 60 years ago by Kosi. Restoration of this rail link will shorten thedistance of rail connection with the eastern states by hundreds of kilometresfrom north and western parts of the country, Kumar said.On measures forinitiating reforms in the railways, Kumar said the railways are “movingahead of Rakesh Mohan committee recommendations on reforms of therailways�.Because of various steps taken to streamline the economyof the railways, salutary results have started coming up. “Operatingratio�, which is an indicator of the financial condition of the railways,has come down from 98 per cent to 96 per cent in the current financial year,while the target is 94 per cent for the next financial year. “In the nexttwo years, the ratio will come down to 90 per cent, which will show that therailways are in sound economic health,� he said.