TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Union Minister of State for Railways, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday said the Konkan Railway Corporation should have a re-look at its decision to scrap the Sky Bus Project and he even attributed financial implication behind the KRC decision.
Speaking to the media during his visit to the State on Saturday, Adhir said there appears financial implication behind the decision to scrap the project.
“The project has become non-viable because of the financial constraints faced by the KRC. But, I feel that the KRC should have a re-look at its decision. The financial problem is a temporary phenomenon. We will restore the project after the situation improves”, he said.
When the media drew his attention to the decision already taken by the KRC to dismantle the sky project test track and sell it for scrap, the minister shot back saying, the media is unnecessarily creating hype on the project when the ground reality is different.
“Sky Bus Project is another salient feature of the Konkan Railway Corporation. After the Anti-Collision Device and other inventions, the KRC had developed the Sky Bus technology indigenously. The KRC must have taken the decision to scrap the project because a project cannot sustain without earning revenue”, he added.
When asked whether the Indian Railways have any plan to bail out the KRC over the sky bus project by making available the funds for the next five years, he said “the KRC is a separate entity, Apart from the railway zones; the KRC is the best railway in the country. But the fact remains that KRC is also facing financial constraints. That is the sole reason affecting the Sky Bus and other expansion plans”.
Replying to another question, the Union Minister said he had visited the State to get acquainted with the work and other facilities provided by the Konkan Railway. “The KRC has earned kudos not just in India but abroad as well. Konkan Railway is one railway whose services need to be emulated by all other zonal railways”, he added.
No govt supported project: Tayal
MARGAO: Justifying the decision behind the scrapping of the Sky Bus project, Konkan Railway Corporation Managing Director, B P Tayal has said none of the four state governments were ready to chip in the funds to get the project going when the Corporation was in need of Rs 800 crore.
Tayal told the media that though the Konkan Railway Corporation also belonged to the four state governments along the Konkan region, but all of them refused to chip in the funds.
More ever, he further said that the KRC tried to raise money from the market and through some commercial exploitation, but the proposal came a cropper.
“We tried to exploit the project commercially by twice inviting the expression of interest, but none came forward to take up the proposal”, he said.
Saying that the Indian Railways has so far given Rs 4000 crore to the Konkan Railway, Tayal said the question of the Indian Railways funding the Sky Bus project is remote given the financial constraints.
