Paswan and his dumped projects

The practice of announcing the project first and bothering later about the clearances is nothing new. Jaffer Sharief, Paswan's predecessor ...

The practice of announcing the project first and bothering later about the clearances is nothing new. Jaffer Sharief, Paswan’s predecessor faced similar charges of bypassing the Planning Commission. “Paswan seems to be trying to outdo Jaffer Sharief,” one official feels.

Of late, Railway Ministry has been increasingly seeking clearances only at a later stage. Since Parliament has already passed Railway Budget, the Planning Commission often feels bound to go along. And other ministers in the CCEA find it hard to stymie a colleague’s pet scheme.

But Paswan did eat humble pie recently. In August the expanded Railway Board — which includes representatives from the Planning Commission — refused clearance to six projects worth around Rs 3,500 crore. In September, the CCEA also reportedly decided to keep the projects on hold.

Projects sanctioned without the Planning Commission clearance this year include new lines â€“ Abohar-Fazilka, Dharamavaram-Puttaparthi, Lalitpur-Satna-Rewa-Singauli, Kopargaon-Shirdi and Angamali-Sabrimala. Gauge conversions on Gonda-Gorakhpur, New Jalpaigiri, Siliguri-New Bongaigaon and Rewari-Sadulpur routes also fall in this category.

The Ministry’s list of 45 unremunerative lines includes 23 which would yield a negative rate of return. Most of the remaining lines well fetch the Railways less than 10 percent annually of the amount spent on their construction.

Also on the list is the strategically important 290-km Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line to be laid at the cost of Rs 1,900 crore spread over several years. Ara-Sasaram, Jogighopa-Guwahati, Nangal Dam-Talwara, Baramati-Lonadh, Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi, Bangalore-Satyamangalam and Jammu Tawi-Udhampur lines are other projects which don’t make much sense, commercially speaking.