Date:12/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/12/stories/2006111209490400.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Government to set up Railway Development Corporation

Special Correspondent

To ensure speedy execution of development projects

TAKING STOCK: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan chairing a meeting on railway development at the Government guesthouse at Thycaud in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : A high-level meeting of Ministers, MPs and officials here on Saturday decided to soon set up a Railway Development Corporation and a permanent monitoring system to ensure speedy execution of railway development projects in the State.

Briefing reporters, Law Minister M. Vijayakumar, in charge of railways, said the corporation would be formed jointly by the Union and the State Governments. Such corporations had been formed in other States, such as Maharashtra, and they had been successful in taking up projects. The monitoring system would comprise Ministers, MPs and officials. MPs would have a major say in the mechanism.

Land acquisition for the first phase of the Sabari railway project will begin within 20 days in Ernakulam. Since the proposed railway line runs through Ernakulam, Kottayam and Idukki districts, the Collectors concerned had been directed to complete the acquisition process without delay.

Though the Railway Ministry had sanctioned 65 overbridges in the State, only 10 had been commissioned and work on only eight others had begun.The meeting felt that doubling of the railway lines from Ernakulam to Thiruvananthapuram should be completed without delay. All MPs raised the demand for a special railway zone.