Daily Bhaskar:Sunday, February 12, 2012.
Indore: Only about one third of the funds sanctioned by Union Railway Ministry for the ambitious Ratlam-Khandwa-Akola gauge conversion project have been utilised by the Western Railway till date.
In a reply to a query under RTI act, the railway authorities said that till Jan 13, 2012, the railway has spent only `54.80 crore on this project.
The gauge conversion of 685.75 km long Ratlam-Mhow-Khandwa-Akola was sanctioned in the year 2008-09 at an estimated cost of 1421.25 cr. In first two years of the project, ` 72 crore were sanctioned but only `65. 33 lakh were utilised by the western railways. Between 2010 and 2012, around `70 crore had been sanctioned while the amount utilised by the region’s railway authorities was `31.80 crore only. If the remaining funds are not utilised before this year’s railway budget is presented, they would simply lapse as per the rules.
Once the meter gauge line between Ratlam and Khandwa is converted into broad gauge, Indore will be connected directly to the southern part of the country on the railway map.
The gauge conversion will also reduce distance between Indore and Mumbai by 100 km on Khandwa-Bhusawal-Manmad-Mumbai route.
Gautum Kothari, President, Pithampur Audhoyogik Sangthan said that in the past four budgets, an amount of `142.95 crore had been sanctioned while only one third of this amount has been spent on the project so far. “The progress is very slow due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Railway authorities,” he added.
“Work on this line is going on. Sometimes we have to divert funds to other projects as per the requirement,” said Railway PRO, Ratlam division, Pradeep Sharma.
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