NEW DELHI, Dec 16 � At least 410 acres of land belonging to the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is currently under encroachment, including 2.10 acres in Guwahati, even as the Railways ruled out the possibility of giving away surplus land to various organisations.
The railway land is mostly in the form of narrow strips along the tracks and is generally required for development works as well as servicing and maintenance of tracks and other infrastructure.
In the interim period, the railways has taken up plans to undertake commercial development and various other railway-related works on land, which is not immediately required for its operational needs wherever possible, Minister of State�Bharatsinh Solanki�said in a Rajya Sabha reply to a question by Bhubaneswar Kalita.
The Minister was replying to a question whether the railways proposed to allot surplus land to various organisations.
Meanwhile, with its major projects in the North-east suffering cost and time overruns, the Railway Ministry said it is undertaking fresh initiative to ensure early completion.
Efforts are being made for early completion of these projects by close monitoring of progress of the work, following up with the revenue and forest departments for handing over of the remaining revenue and forest land, and deployment of security forces in the areas affected by law and order problems by coordinating with the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the�Minister of State for Railways.
A dedicated non-lapsable fund namely �North Eastern Region Rail Development Fund� (NERRDF) has been created for providing assured fund flows to national projects of the North-east region. Besides, the�gauge conversion of 510.33-km Rangiya-Murkongselek sections is a sanctioned national project. Land acquisition, earthwork, bridges and track work have been taken up on the entire stretch and the works are in various stages of progress.�The�123.6-km Rangiya-Rangpara North section of this project is targeted for completion by March 2012. An expenditure of Rs 565.27 crore has been incurred up to March 2011 and an outlay of Rs 283.00 crore has been provided for this project for the year 2011-12.
