The Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien called the Mumbai Ahmedabad bullet train a “vanity project” of the Centre on Thursday.
Derek O’Brien, the Trinamool Congress member of parliament while speaking in the Rajya Sabha on the working of the Ministry of Railways called the Mumbai- Ahmedabad bullet train a “vanity project” of the centre.
He said that the government’s outlook on the railways is different than the Trinamool Congress and many other parties. He said, “For us, the Railways constitutes the infrastructure for the fundamental right of every Indian citizen to travel from point A to point B. It is a fundamental right as far as transport goes.”
Mr O’Brien in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday criticised the government for the lack of ideas to improve the railway system and not catering to the need of the common people regarding the railways.
Derek also broached the topic of private trains, Tejas and sought explanation on the matter. Tejas trains were stopped after running for eight months.
He asked about how many meetings were held by the group of secretaries formed by the railway ministry who are supposed to look into the issue. He questioned about the meetings held and asked the government to share with the MPs what is being discussed in those meetings.
Mr. O’Brien accused the government of unequal treatment of different railway zones in case of providing funds. He stated that the Southern railways has received 400 crores in the last four years while in case of the Northern railways it amounts to about 30000 crores.
Derek asked the ministry to share the percentage of fund allocation to different states and how much the states have received.
He asked the Railway Ministry to consider how to make the freight trains available at a lower cost to make it affordable to the people of North-East.
He also accused the government of not making ticket prices affordable to the common people of India citing the example of The Vande Bharat Express. Its tickets range between ₹ 1500 and ₹ 3000.
Derek on bullet trains
The total expense of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project is estimated to be ₹ 1.08 lakh crore. The 508.17-kilometre long railway track will pass through Mumbai, Thane, and Palghar in Maharashtra; and Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda, and Ahmedabad in Gujarat.
Derek called this bullet train a “vanity project” of the Centre and went onto further add that there is nothing wrong with bullet trains at a later point of time. He feels that the government’s priority should be for the freight corridor carrying ‘sabzi’(vegetables), ‘chawal’(rice) and others for 25 crore per kilometre where as the bullet train’s cost is about 200 crores a kilometres.
Others who took part in the discussion
Neeraj Shekhar and Harshvardhan Singh Dungarpur of BJP also took part in the discussion. Neeraj Sekhar said that the railways has seen a drastic change in the last few years in case of cleanliness of the trains and stations.
GK Vasan from Taamil Maanila Congress pointed out the lack of funding for railway projects in Tamil Nadu and asked for timely completion of the ongoing railway projects. K Ravindra Kumar asked the ministry to fill up the lakhs of vacant posts in the railways.
Published By : Revathy G Sanal
Edited By : Subbuthai Padma
