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India Gazette
7 days ago
- Business
- India Gazette
PM Modi increased Kerala's railway budget to Rs 3,042 crore: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi [India], June 3 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government has increased Kerala's railway budget from an average of Rs 372 Crore (2009-14) to Rs 3,042 crore in the financial year 2025-26, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday. 'PM Narendra Modi Ji has increased Kerala's railway budget from an average Rs372 Cr (2009-14) to Rs3,042 Cr in FY 2025-26. We are working on 3rd and 4th line from North to South Kerala, so that both passengers and cargo can move by rail,' Vaishnaw said in a post X. Vaishnaw said that he discussed key projects with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and sought his support for land acquisition, especially for Angamaly-Erumeli railway project and Road Over Bridges (ROB) and Road Under Bridges (RUB) being sanctioned. The Angamaly-Erumeli railway project, also known as Sabari rail project was first proposed in the Railway Budget of 1997-98. The land acquisition for the project was completed too. The Kerala CM has earlier said that the expansion of the Sabari rail project would provide a significant boost to Kerala's development, while also suggesting that it could be extended in the future to connect Vizhinjam. In December, an official statement from the Kerala CM's office said that the project would be implemented in two phases with an expanded approach, with the state government requesting the Centre's approval, and 50 per cent of the cost of the project will be borne by the state government. The section's plan included the construction of two flyovers and two underpasses. However, land acquisition notifications have now been issued for the next 70 km. A letter from the Railways dated 26.09.2019 informed the state government that the project had been frozen, leading to a halt in further construction activities, including the flyovers. Although the project initially began with full funding from the Railways, on January 7, 2021, the Kerala Government conveyed to the Central Government its readiness to bear 50 per cent of the project cost, then estimated at Rs 2,815 crore, through Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). (ANI)
Time of India
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Gosikhurd Project's Deadline Pushed To 2027 As Cost Spirals
1 2 Nagpur: The Maharashtra govt has once again extended the deadline for the completion of the long-pending Gosikhurd Indira Sagar Project , now pushing its final timeline to 2027. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis confirmed to TOI that while all existing works would be wrapped up by Sept 2026, remaining proposed works will follow and conclude by the end of 2027. Earlier, the govt had set a 2025 deadline for the project, launched by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 with an original cost estimate of Rs372 crore, has seen repeated delays and is now projected to cost nearly Rs26,000 crore. A revised administrative approval of Rs25,972.69 crore was sanctioned by the Maharashtra Cabinet on April 21, aiming to accelerate the stalled on the Wainganga River in Bhandara district, the multipurpose irrigation project is being executed by the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC). Designed to benefit approximately 1.96 lakh hectares of farmland across Bhandara, Nagpur, and Chandrapur districts, it also includes provisions for drinking water, industrial supply, fisheries, and hydroelectric who earlier claimed in the state assembly in April 2024 that the project would be completed by 2025, reiterated that the delays were primarily due to the inefficiency of previous Congress govts. "This project could have transformed irrigation in Vidarbha, but persistent neglect by previous Congress govts delayed it," he had said in the obtained through an RTI filed by activist Abhay Kolarkar previously revealed that despite being declared a national project and receiving approval from the Central Water Commission's Technical Advisory Committee in 2008, the VIDC created only limited irrigation potential. Originally intended to irrigate 1.90 lakh hectares and projected to create potential for 2.5 lakh hectares, the project was supposed to be completed by sources within the irrigation department have pointed to systemic corruption, political interference, and poor fund allocation as reasons behind the project's stagnation. The Gosikhurd project is widely cited as an example of how mismanagement has turned a potentially transformative development into a financial in February 1981 and touted as a harbinger of agricultural revival for Vidarbha — a region long plagued by droughts, debt, and farmer suicides — the project has failed to meet expectations more than four decades later. The latest extension is seen as yet another attempt to breathe life into a scheme that once promised a green revolution in Maharashtra's most distressed farming belt.
