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            Sir, a bond between steel and concrete is made when India goes towards infrastructural development.  Rail is not only carrying human beings as passengers, but it is the primary carriage form of all the materials that are used for building India. Rail carries cement, finished steel, iron ore, fertilizers and chemicals that is going to build a better, stronger and a much more developed India.

            Now, as per records, 5,319.87 million people travelled by the Indian Railways last year.  As per projection by 2012, 8,400 million people and 1,100 million tonnes of freight are going to be carried.  For this we require, as certain hon. Members have requested in this august House to the hon. Minister, more tracks, more new lines and conversion of lines to broad gauge. The Railway family consists of so many Corporations like the Railway Engineers Regiment, the Container Corporation of India, the Centre for Railway Information System, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India, the Ircon International Limited, The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited, the Indian Railways Finance Corporation Limited and the Railtel Corporation of India.  Every member of these Corporations, along with our hon. Minister, is trying for the safety of the passengers, for their comfort; but very sadly we notice that railways have become the softest target for the people who want to create problems in different parts of the country, for the separatist movements, for terrorist attacks and for any petty reason.  It is the softest target which is doing so much for the country, passing from one part to another and it is stopped. Stones are pelted at the drivers, windows are shattered, women and children are hurt and trains set to fire.  

            Sir, I have a few observations to make on the working of the Railways. As far as pending projects are concerned, this has become a regular practice with the Railways that they are not completing their projects in time and this has been happening with the Railways since inception. The number of pending projects in respect of new lines, doubling, gauge conversion, electrification etc. in different areas of the country is 338. The maximum projects are pending in the State of Bihar and the second State in this respect is West Bengal where 32 projects are pending. What is the reason for not completing the projects in time? The reply given by the Railway Ministry at different times is that this is mainly due to paucity of funds and the other factors that are responsible for this are failure of contractors, rise in the cost of materials, delay in getting forestry clearance and some law and order problems prevailing in different parts of the country. All these are creating obstacles in completion of all these projects. But recently, the Standing Committee on Railways has examined this issue and they have categorically stated as follows:

“The Committee are not convinced with these reasons as the same are repeated time and again by the Railways in each and every case of shortfall. The Committee, therefore, desire that, as assured before the Committee, the Railways should make sincere and conscious efforts to address these problems and achieve the target in the remaining period of the 11th Plan.”               What was the projection for the 11th Plan? As already stated by my esteemed colleague from the BJP Shri Lalji Tandon, the projection is 2,000 kms. of new lines, 10,000 kms. of gauge conversion, 6,000 kms. of doubling and 3,500 kms. of electrification during the 11th Plan period. But the Railways could achieve only 527 kms. of new lines and 2,189 kms. of gauge conversion during these two years of the 11th Plan period. We could achieve about 874 kms. of doubling and 1,299 kms. of electrification during the first two years of this Plan period.  The reasons have already been stated as to why these are delayed.

            Generally the Railway Ministers are good people when compared to Finance Ministers because whenever Members of Parliament request the Ministers of Railways for a project, they immediately accept it and in confirmation of that acceptance they also allocate a token amount for the project.

            At the outset I wish to congratulate the hon. Railway Minister for the two projects, namely, the Ijjat and Duranto, which she announced in her last Budget speech. Both these have become instant success. I once again congratulate the hon. Minister for this. But in regard to projects requested by the hon. Members of Parliament which are accepted, it has been the practice of the Railway Ministers, not only of Ms. Mamata Banerjee, but of Railway Ministers of the last, say, 10 to 12 years, that though the projects are accepted and token amounts are allocated in the Budget for the same, but the completion of those projects have always remained in question. In this regard, our hon. Chief Minister, and our Party leader, Dr. Kalaignar Karunanidhi had already written to the hon. Minister for Railways seeking to expedite some of the projects announced in the State of Tamil Nadu, particularly in respect of projects relating to gauge conversion. Against a Budget grant of Rs. 240 crore provided for the year 2009-10, an additional grant of Rs. 280 crore would be required to complete the works on time. Most importantly, the Myaladiturai—Thiruthuraipundi—Karaikudi is a very important line which cater to lakhs of people but the project for gauge conversion of this stretch has not been completed yet. Therefore, I would like to request the hon. Minister to speed up the project by allocating more funds to this.  Likewise, the gauge conversion of the route between Thiruvarur—Nagapattanam—Thirukuvagai is still pending completion because of inadequate funding.