Nitish causing obstacles in Railway projects in Bihar,alleges Lalu

New Delhi, Aug 1 (UNI) Continuing his tirade against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad today accused him of creating hurdles in implementing Rs 55,000 crore rail projects, particularly in acquisition of land, in Bihar.

This was one of the reasons that the Railways was forced to have a special legislation for acquisition of land for its projects on the lines of the National Highways Authority of India, Mr Lalu Prasad told newspersons here.

He said there were five major projects amounting to Rs 55,000 crore pending in Bihar. "We could not take the up because of the non-cooperation of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar," he charged.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo said that Mr Kumar, his main rival in the state politics, was not able to get even a single unit of the railways established in the state during his tenure as the Railway Minister, although he proclaimed himself to be "development oriented".

The five projects are Electric Engine Manufacturing unit at Madhepura, diesel locomotive unit at Maghore, near Chhapra, Rail Wheel Factory at Chhapra, a joint 1000 mw power project of the Indian Railways Electricity Corporation at Nabi Nagar near Sasaram and a dedicated freight corridor terminal to be set up at Dalmia Nagar.

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