Shimla: Chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal let the Himachal Vidhan Sabha know that the issue of funding the multi crore Bhanupali-Bilaspur-Beri railway line remained unresolved.
During question, responding to a question by Rajesh Dharmani (congress) the chief minister said that earlier the central government
had agreed to fund the project on a 75:25 basis between ministry of railways and the state government, with the cost of land to be included in the states share and any cost overruns to be borne by the railway ministry but now the ministry has turned around to propose that 25 % of the completion cost needs to be footed by the state.
The state government has asked the central government to review the decision.
The railway ministry has informed that they had completed the final location survey of the railway line and had sanctioned part detailed estimate for Bhanupali-Dharot stretch (20 Kms) amounting to Rs 350 Cr.
Contract for earthwork and minor bridges for first 3 Kms had been awarded and an memorandum of understanding had been signed between railways and geological survey of India for geological investigation, he said.
Dhumal further said that during 2009-10 railway budget Rs 20 crore was provided for the project but it was scaled down to Rs 8.74 crore and whereas as Rs 41 crore was marked for 2010-11 railway budget, later it was scaled down to Rs 21.55 crore.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
I am from Bilaspur, so do not take this on any other way. Here I think it is a simple issue of 4 LK seats not being important enough to bargain a deal. And that is unlikely to go away. That is the bland/brutal/honest truth.
Thus the focus has to be on this simple question
What is the economic viability of the project?
Who are the folks who benefit and if they do what can be done to secure their investment?
What about an initiative where a company is floated especially for infrastructure in HP, made to go public and generate funds, through bonds sold to common folks, with an assured ROI? Of course that only takes off, if the economic viability is proven???
Again going with a begging bowl to the Central government will not help. Our’s is a small state and nobody is and will be bothered.