Himachal did not get enough in rail budget: Virbhadra

Shimla: The rail budget for 2013-14 was disappointing and did not give sufficient funds to Himachal Pradesh to implement projects, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said on Tuesday.

Expressing his unhappiness with the budget, presented by his Congress party colleague, Railway Minister P.K. Bansal, Virbhadra Singh said in the assembly: "I am not happy with the rail budget. We all have made efforts but we are not able to get sufficient funding. We got only Rs.14.01 crore for three rail line projects." He said his government was trying to get more funds for the ongoing projects. "I wrote letters to the prime minister and the railway minister. Whether we are successful in getting additional funding or not, time will tell," the chief minister said. For execution of the Nangal-Talwara broadgauge rail line, for which the railway ministry is bearing the entire expenditure, a provision of Rs.10 crore has been made in the budget. "So far only 44 km track of this line has been laid and the remaining 39 km is under construction," Virbhadra Singh said. To link Chandigarh with the state`s industrial hub Baddi, Rs.100,000 has been earmarked, he added. "For execution of the Bhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri, there is provision of Rs.4 crore in this budget," he said, adding that the state had already got survey of the rail line from RITES Ltd., a government of India enterprise under the Indian Railways, by spending Rs.25 lakh. IANS