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Journalism of Courage
With West Bengal assembly elections round the corner,Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee seems to be keen to unfurl a promising budget entailing new projects and new railway lines. With the Planning Commission shooting down her wish-list of new projects arguing that given the poor financial health of the state-run transport monolith,this was impossible. Banerjee has been meeting the top brass of the UPA government to get the last minute approval of the projects.
Sources said Banerjee has merely succeeded in securing a Gross Budgetary Support of Rs 22,000 crore,an increase of slightly more than Rs 5,000 against her proposal of Rs 39,000 crore. They said she intended to come out with a budget of more than Rs 63,000 crore,but has been restricted to less than Rs 44,000 crore and that too with a rider that Railways would generate internal resources of about Rs 23,000 crore,which is unlikely to happen due to poor traffic growth projections (of just 6-7 per cent),sources said. Sources said the Plan Panel has asked the transport monolith to lay focus on strengthening the existing projects including the Dedicated Freight Corridors and giving facelift to stations.
