February 6, 2020
Allocation for Bangla in Rail Budget is almost zero
The ‘Pink Book’ brought out on behalf of Indian Railways has been published. It contains a detailed breakup of what the Finance Ministry has allocated for each zone of the railways and under what head. At a time when neighbouring states like Jharkhand and Odisha are rejoicing with several new projects, Bangla has been unfortunate not to get even a single new project. There is no new train for the state in the new financial year.
Not only this, the projects that had been approved when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was Railway Minister have not been given a single additional paisa by the Narendra Modi government. Owing to lack of funds, the Tarakeswar-Bishnupur, Jangipara-Furfura Sharief, or even the Nandigram-Deshpran, Digha-Jaleshwar and Bankura-Mukutmonipur projects will not be able to progress a single step in the coming days.
The funds that have been earmarked for the four ongoing projects in Kolkata Metro are less in all areas compared to what had been given in last year’s budget. The overall allocation for Metro projects has decreased. There are hardly any funds for any new work.
The only work that has got an increased allocation is the Baranagar to Barrackpore via Dakshineswar line.
