On right track: Plan panel doubles Railways allocation

NEW DELHI: The Centre seems to have finally woken up to the need for modernisation and upgradation of the railway infrastructure in the country. First, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee stated that Railways modernisation should be a priority area and now the Plan panel has also decided that the sector be sanctioned the money it requires.
The Tenth Plan draft has allocated gross budgetary support of Rs 27,600 crore for the five-year period as against Rs 29,650 crore sought by the Railways. Significantly, the allocation is nearly double the Rs 15,200 crore (at 2001-02 prices) allocated in the last plan.
The total outlay for the sector during the 10th Plan period would be Rs 60,600 crore with Rs 33,000 crore coming from internal and extra budgetary resources.
However, even as the Railways climbed up a few notches on the government list of priority sectors, road development continues to get greater importance. And this can be seen in the allocations. While the Railways budgetary allocation has gone up by 82%, that of the road and highways sector has been increased by 140%.
The draft plan document has allocated Rs 37,350 crore in the 10th Plan period of the road sector as against Rs 12,560 in the previous plan. The Surface Transport Ministry had sought budgetary allocation of Rs 60,944 crore for the five-year period.