In a meeting between railway minister Suresh Prabhu and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi on November 4, the railways had reminded the state to loosen its purse strings and make good the state's share of Rs 160 crore for the project.
The 261-km Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath new corridor project is fast becoming the flagship project of railways and the state government. The line, once constructed, could give good political dividends to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the Marathwada and western Maharashtra regions. Sensing this, the railways are going all out with the project.
On Friday, Central Railway's (CR) construction department issued tenders worth Rs181 crore for the construction of various bridges. It had issued the first set of tenders for Rs177 crore on July 19. Then again on July 30, it set out another packet of tenders, worth around Rs 120 crore.
Between July and November, work orders worth Rs 480 crore have been issued. This, officials pointed out, works out to be around 17 % of the total estimated cost, which is Rs2,826 crore. "It is a very robust beginning for a project that has been in the making for over a decade now. If all things go as planned, the line might become a reality in 5-7 years," said a railway official.
The problem of cost-sharing, a bane for most projects, however, remains. In a meeting between railway minister Suresh Prabhu and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at Rail Bhavan in New Delhi on November 4, the railways had reminded the state to loosen its purse strings and make good the state's share of Rs 160 crore for the project. In June this year, the state cabinet approved the corridor as a 50-50 % joint financed model, with both the state and railways pooling in Rs 1,413 crore each.
One reason for the buoyancy in railway projects is, of course, the money that has come in from quarters such as the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), which incidentally is the largest funding the railways has ever received. On October 27, LIC gave the first cheque of Rs 2,000 crore, out of a total promised loan of Rs1.5 lakh crore, to the railway ministry.
According to the railway officials, the LIC loan has been made available at a rate of 30 basis points. Under the mechanism agreed upon by both the parties, the railways will pay neither interest nor principal for the first five years, after which between 6-10 years, it will pay only the interest amount. During 11-30 years, the entire loan will be have to be repaid in equal installments.
The special liking for the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli line could be political. According to a senior railway official, "The project will connect two parts of the state – Marathwada and western Maharashtra – where BJP did fairly well in the October state assembly polls. The project has the potential to change the fortunes of the belt, bring travelling relief to lakhs, all of which can readily turn into votes for the party backing it."
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