Railway: The ground situation is much worse than what was presented to the Prime Minister

Slowing of projects worries Railways. Finally the Prime Minister has noticed inaction in Ministry of Railways

Changing targets of completion causing embarrassment -Railway Board

There is utter failure of top management to rein in non-performers. The Railway Board is using fear of PM to do what should be its own responsibility.

The lack of progress in key railway projects across the country was resulting in an “embarrassing” situation for the Ministry of Railways during review meetings convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to the Railway Board.

In an advisory issued on Thursday to General Managers of all Zonal Railways, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd., IRCON International Ltd., Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation Ltd., and other PSUs and Railway’s major construction organisations, the Railway Board said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring several railway projects through the Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation (PRAGATI) portal.

Besides assessing data management and analysis, geo-spatial applications and video-conference inputs, Mr. Modi was also viewing videos captured by drones of the project sites to review the progress.

“It is seen that regular monitoring and follow-up is not being done for these projects and issues discussed before Prime Minister and this results in embarrassing situation for Ministry of Railways. Targets given by Zonal Railways/PSUs during meetings are frequently changed and this gets adversely commented upon during meetings,” the advisory said.

The Railway Board was referring to 90 projects across India the progress of which were discussed in 36 meetings (from 25.03.2015 to 24.02.2021).

The listed projects included the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (1,856 km), Udhampur-Srinagar – Baramulla (272 km), Mumbai Urban Transport Project (Phase-II), Mumbai – Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project (508 km), Madurai-Thoothukudi via Aruppukottai (144 kms), and Angamali – Sabarimala Line (111 km) and others.

The note said officers working on these projects may be sensitised to avoid procedural delays and follow up with other statutory authorities and State governments for early completion of the projects.

Source: The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/slow-progress-in-key-projects-worries-railways/article34791335.ece/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

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