Lalu announces new projects, core sectors not to be privatised

New Delhi, Mar 9 (UNI) The Lok Sabha today passed by voice vote The Appropriation (Railways) Vote on Account, 2007, with Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announcing a host of new projects and giving a categorical assurance that the core sectors of the largest Public Sector Undertaking will not be privatised.

In his nearly 45-minute reply to the debate on the Railway Budget in the House, Mr Prasad said it was futile to find loopholes in his budget projections that Railways will end the next fiscal with a surplus of Rs 20,000 crore.

He said there was complete transparency on how the revenue and expenditure figures were worked out and the profit of the Railways was something that the public had witnessed for the last three years.

During the course of the debate, the Opposition had often challenged the Railway Minister on how he had arrived at the figures of the surplus. Some Left party members had also raised doubt on the plans to privatise the behemoth.

The Railway Minister put an end to these question marks, saying it was inconceivable that the core sector of the Railways would be privatised.

The new projects include a survey for the extension of Metro Railway from Dumdum to Baranagar in West Bengal, a survey for laying of line between Darbangha and Muzaffarnagar in Bihar, construction of railway line between Modasa and Samla and early completion of the eastern phase of the dedicated freight corridor.

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