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