New Delhi: Execution of certain big ticket railway projects suffered because of delayed execution during the last nine months, Railways Minister said on Friday in a veiled attack on his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi.
Roy, who took over this month after the unceremonious exit
of Trivedi, made it clear that availability of funds was not
the reason for these delays.
"There was delay in execution of certain rail projects.
The pace of the execution was slow in the last eight-nine
months," the Railways Minister told reporters here.
Roy, who belongs to Trinamool Congress, was clearly
referring to the tenure of his party colleague Trivedi who
took over as Railway Minister on July 13 last year and was
forced to quit after he proposed hike in passenger fares in
the Rail Budget.
Trivedi was hesitant to resign but Trinamool chief Mamata
Banerjee was angry at the fare hike and forced him to go.
Roy said he had already undertaken a stock-taking exercise
of all important projects and there was need to speed up work.
He referred to the proposed high speed rail corridor and
said an authority would be constituted to execute the project,
Cabinet note to this effect will be prepared soon.
Asked about the progress in locomotive projects in Bihar
and Kanchrapara EMU project in West Bengal, he said work on
these would be speeded up.
A diesel locomotive factory is to be set up at Marhora
while an electric locomotive manufacturing unit is proposed at
Madhepura in Bihar. Both the multi-crore projects are to be
executed in public private partnership.
Roy said work on Kanchrapara EMU project will also be
expedited.
Asked about the fate of Rae Bareli coach factory, he
said the factory has already manufactured 10 modern coaches
which will be rolled out soon.
PTI
