The isolation of the North-East caused by blockade of Manipur by Naga students has spurred the Prime Minister’s Office to direct the Railway Ministry to expedite the projects in the region, and ensure that funds are properly utilised.Citing reports that funds meant for the North-East were being diverted by the railways for projects outside the region, the PMO said that the money had to be spent within the territorial jurisdiction of North-East. It also asked the railways to relax norms of financial viability for the projects in the region.The government also agreed to fund projects that were not financially viable but required for the socio-economic development of the region. These include Jiribam-Imphal Road, Kumarghat-Agartala new line projects and Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam gauge conversion. The Ministry of Defence had agreed to fund the Senchoa-Silghat gauge conversion on strategic consideration.Regarding diversion of funds, the railways were told that they could use the money meant for North-East only for those feeder lines, which would remove bottlenecks enroute, enhance capacity and smoothen movement of traffic in the region. Mention was specifically made of the New Mynaguri-Jogijhopa new line and New Jalpaiguri-New Bongaigaon gauge conversion project.In another significant directive to the Railway Ministry, the PMO also said that the norms of financial viability for projects in the North-East should be relaxed from the prevalent 14 per cent. ‘‘The development and expansion of rail network in the region is imperative to socio-economic development apart from strategic relevance,’’ the railways were told.As per statistics, of the 16 surveys — for 12 new lines and four gauge conversions — undertaken in the region in the past five years, 10 proposals were shelved as they were found economically not viable. Three were included in the budget and the remaining three were under examination.According to sources, railways asked the government to provide funds for Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge across river Brahmputra. There has been an inordinate delay in construction of the mega-bridge due to non-availability of funds. The project was initially to be funded by the World Bank but due to large investments required and financial non-viability, they had backed outThe gauge conversion of Rangia-Murkong-Selek section was also closely linked to the Bogibeel bridge. Both the projects were important for connecting remote areas of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, besides movement of defence forces. Asking for funds for both the projects, the railways told the government that they would also help in flood control. Sources said that Finance Ministry will take a decision on funding of these projects.
