Freight corridor to link Nano factory but no funds yet

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav8217;s budget has good news for Tata Motors. The Railway Budget proposes a dedicated freight corridor...

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav8217;s budget has good news for Tata Motors. The Railway Budget proposes a dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni, located near Tata Motor8217;s small car project site at Singur. Needless to say, the dedicated corridor will connect the Tata factory with the rest of India.

However, there8217;s some bad news for the company as well. As the preliminary survey work for the project from Dhanbad to Dankuni remains incomplete, funds have not been allocated. With Nano expected to hit the roads by October-November this year, the dedicated freight corridor might be a long way away for the Tata Motors to reap its benefit, unless put on fast track.

Apart from this, however, there is not much for West Bengal to be happy about. The state has got only four new trains.

Moreover, long standing projects like development of Howrah and Sealdah stations, Shalimar terminal station, the Kolkata station in Chitpur and extension and improvement of the Metro have been ignored.

8220;Continuing the trend of the past few years, the Railway Budget is hopeless for Bengal. The dedicated freight corridor will benefit the much talked about Singur project. The original corridor was from Ludhiana to Dhanbad, which has now been extended to Dankuni. But no funds have been allotted and even preliminary survey is incomplete. Therefore, it will take years to become operational,8221; said Bhaskar Chaudhuri, a retired chief commercial manager of Eastern Railways.

Tata8217;s small car project lies in Singur, which is close to both the Dankuni Expressway,

part of the Golden Quadrilateral, and the proposed freight corridor.

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The four new trains for West Bengal state are 8212; a weekly Asansol-Mumbai Express, tri-weekly Malda Town-Patna Express, weekly Kolkata-Murshidabad Hazarduari Express and weekly Radhikapur-Delhi Express. Bhagalpur-Ranchi Express which was five days-a-week has been made daily, Lokmayna Tilak

Mumbai-Howrah, also known as Samrastra Express, which was weekly has been made bi-weekly. The Budget proposed to modernise the Railway workshop in Liluah along with workshops in Perambur and Ajmer with an allocation of Rs 200 crore.

Despite declaring Howrah as a model station, no budgetary allocation was made for it. The Budget was silent on the extension of Metro till Garia and the proposed east-west Metro corridor between Salt Lake and Ramrajatolla.

8220;Budget says nothing about the need to increase the number of local trains. Now, commuters jostle for space inside the compartments. After an hour of rain, trains and passengers get stranded in Howrah since there is no proper drainage system,8221; said a railway official requesting anonymity.

What is a freight corridor?

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8226; The dedicated freight corridor will comprise a track that will be dedicated exclusively for freight trains, enabling smoother and faster passage of goods.

8226; Usually, freight trains are delayed since they share tracks with both express and passenger trains.