Mamata proposes railway budget of Rs.40745 crore

New Delhi, Jul 3: Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed an outlay of Rs.40,745 crore for 2009-2010, which is 2840 crore more than the allocation proposed in the interim budget.

"Rs. 15, 675 crore will be deployed through internal resources and Rs.9, 170 crore from market borrowings. The Ministry will also go for issue of tax free bonds for resource generation," she said.

She proposed increase in the allocation for new lines from Rs.1100 crore in the interim budget to Rs.2921 crore. "Similarly, provision for gauge conversion has been increased by 24 per cent over the interim budget by allocating Rs. 1750 crore," she added.

The Minister also said passenger amenities will now have Rs. 1102 crore while the allocation in the interim budget was only Rs.502 crore. Thus, 119 per cent more money will be spent on passenger amenities.

Declaring staff welfare as a priority area, she proposed 49 per cent increase for the construction of staff quarters by allocating Rs. 335 crore and 79 per cent increase for staff amenities by allocating Rs.424 crore.

The Minister further said, "Additional funds to the tune of Rs.1949 crore have been sought from the Ministry of Finance for eleven railway projects spread over in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East."

ANI