* * * Jharkhand News <http://jharkhand.org.in/>* ** **
*It's Bihar all the way * Feb. 26: Even the phrase, "Mungeri Lal ke hasin sapne", used by the railway minister Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav during his Budget speech today had a Bihar connotation. He claimed that the dreams of "Mungeri Lal" have now become a reality. Perhaps so, if one considers his announcement for having a passenger train to his native village Phulwaria in Gopalgunj district. Mr Yadav's speech had a distinct imprint of Bihar all over. It was also about advantage Jharkhand which, however, gives a lot of revenue by way of freight by way of dedicated movement of iron ore, steel products and coal. But there was no mention of decades-old proposal of Koderma-Hazaribag- Ranchi rail link even in the list of on-going projects, even as the minister talked of a survey of Gaya-Chatra link. Bihar remained a focus for Mr Yadav's Budget proposals ~ for new employment generating capital intensive projects, new railway lines, new trains and even new line surveys. Almost all the districts of Bihar could be mapped by putting dots on the places mentioned by Mr Yadav in his speech. The state provides one of the highest numbers of passengers to the railways, though. Mr Yadav proposed new dedicated iron ore routes to be constructed or upgraded in mineral- rich Jharkhand. He mentioned approval and survey of new lines. The railway minister declared that along with three stations at New Delhi, Mumbai and Secundrabad, Patna would be developed into a world-class station during the current financial year of 2008-09 attracting an overall investment of nearly Rs 15,000 crore. At Bihar's Nabinangar in Aurangabad, Railways in a joint venture with NTPC would set up a 1000 MW railway captive thermal power plant with production expected in the current Plan period. This and other projects might result in massive employment generation for the people of Bihar. A wagon reconstruction unit at a cost of Rs 40 crore has been proposed at Garkha in Chapra, his Lok Sabha constitutency. Mr Yadav has proposed modernisation of one of the oldest Railways entity, Jamalpur Workshop, at a cost of Rs 82 crore to enable it to function as a production unit. The minister has proposed transfer of Mokamah and Muzaffarpur wagon factories to the Indian Railways so that their production capacities were fully utilised. There would be a new rolling stock production unit at Madhepura, his erstwhile constituency, as a special railway project. A similar unit was planned at Marhoura not far from his home village. As regards new trains, there would be Garib Rath links from Delhi-Jaynagar via Patna and another similar bi-weekly between Ranchi-Delhi. There were many new trains originating either from Bihar/Jharkhand or passing through the states to different parts of the country. Mr Yadav announced one daily passenger train linking Hajipur to Phulwaria, his native village. So, there would be a weekly Amritsar-Saharsa Jan Sadharan Express (weekly) via Hasanpur, Malda Town-Patna Express (tri-weekly) via Bhagalpur, Delhi-Jogbani Link Express (weekly), Kamakhya-Gaya Express (weekly), Vasco-da-gama-Patna Express (weekly) via Konkan railway and a Gaya- Chennai Express (weekly). There was lot of emphasis on the heavily-populated north Bihar as part of a tradition maintained by all railway ministers from Bihar. In all their railway Budgets, such ministers have always sought to put places such as Jaynagar, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga Samastipur, Khagaria, Purnea and Saharsa on the railway's map. The story was no different today. thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=192668 *Jharkhand => Jharkhand.us <http://www.Jharkhand.us>* . -- Jharkhand News [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jharkhand Online Network www.jharkhand.org.in/news
