Rathwa tells Gujarat govt to put forth railway proposals

Ahmedabad, Mar 18 (UNI) Gujarat government needs to be more pro-active and should put forth railway proposals to the Centre for faster growth of railway infrastructure, Union Minister for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa said today.

The minister was here for the inauguration of All India SC/ST Railway Employees Association at Ahmedabad railway station, where he made a personal contribution of Rs ONE lakh.

Later, addressing mediapersons at the Circuit House, Mr Rathwa said simply signing mammoth MoUs as was being done presently was not enough. The Chief Minister must take up issues like railway infrastructure with the Centre for the development of the State. And the State should bear at least 50 per cent of the costs towards setting up railway infrastructure and its co-operation in this regard was very much needed.

Stating that during NDA government's tenure there was meagre allocation to Gujarat, Mr Rathwa said since maximum conversion of narrow and metre gauges were in the state, Rs 444.46 crore have been allocated, which is double of what former railway minister Nitish Kumar had allocated in 2003-04 at Rs 262.03 crore.

In Gujarat there are about 1,300 km to 1,500 km long narrow gauge tracks out of which 100 km long Rajpipla-Ankleshwar and 100 km long Vadodara (Pratapnagar)-Chhota Udepur works are in progress. On the other hand 2,100 km of MG conversion are also being done under the Centre's ''unigauge'' policy approved in principle. However, lack of funds is hampering gauge conversion, Mr Rathwa added.

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