GUWAHATI, Feb 13 � The Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), in a memorandum to Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, has urged the latter to allocate for the North-east five per cent (Rs 70,000 crore) of the total Rs 14 lakh crore to be spent by Indian Railways over the next ten years.
Terming such a move as urgent for ensuring �adequate and focussed funding of the railway network in the North-east�, the FINER also brought to the notice of the minister the extremely slow progress of some ongoing railway projects and called for time-bound completion of the ongoing projects.
On infrastructure augmentation, the FINER underscored the urgent need for creation of new railway yard facility at Changsari/Azara/Mirza/ in lieu of the New Guwahati goods yard in view of the heavy traffic congestions in the city and also because of the fact that many nearby areas of the existing yard fell under the high security zones of Dispur. It also urged the minister to introduce new rakes in the Dibrugarh-Guwahati-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.
Some other demands of the FINER included creation of a second passenger terminal for Guwahati at Kamakhya station, conversion of the New Mainaguri to New Jalpaiguri single BG line to double BG line for facilitating smooth movement of goods trains, expediting work on all the national projects, six per cent freight concession to full rake loads of containers being moved from the inland container depot, Amingaon, specially to facilitate tea export, setting up of a railway ancillary park at Guwahati, introduction of a super fast train, promotion of MSME units of the North-east by way of procuring requirements from locally manufactured/fabricated by local units, and strengthening the NF Railway.
GUWAHATI, Feb 13 � The Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), in a memorandum to Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, has urged the latter to allocate for the North-east five per cent (Rs 70,000 crore) of the total Rs 14 lakh crore to be spent by Indian Railways over the next ten years.
Terming such a move as urgent for ensuring �adequate and focussed funding of the railway network in the North-east�, the FINER also brought to the notice of the minister the extremely slow progress of some ongoing railway projects and called for time-bound completion of the ongoing projects.
On infrastructure augmentation, the FINER underscored the urgent need for creation of new railway yard facility at Changsari/Azara/Mirza/ in lieu of the New Guwahati goods yard in view of the heavy traffic congestions in the city and also because of the fact that many nearby areas of the existing yard fell under the high security zones of Dispur. It also urged the minister to introduce new rakes in the Dibrugarh-Guwahati-New Delhi Rajdhani Express.
Some other demands of the FINER included creation of a second passenger terminal for Guwahati at Kamakhya station, conversion of the New Mainaguri to New Jalpaiguri single BG line to double BG line for facilitating smooth movement of goods trains, expediting work on all the national projects, six per cent freight concession to full rake loads of containers being moved from the inland container depot, Amingaon, specially to facilitate tea export, setting up of a railway ancillary park at Guwahati, introduction of a super fast train, promotion of MSME units of the North-east by way of procuring requirements from locally manufactured/fabricated by local units, and strengthening the NF Railway.
