Prithviraj Chavan slams rail budget, says Centre apathetic to Maharashtra

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today said that rail budget has completely let down Maharashtra and that he was feeling "terribly disappointed" by the "apathy" of Centre towards the state.

"The government has done nothing on the demand for the rollback of the 14.5 per cent hike in passenger fares, and the announcement of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train is also not new as it was mentioned in the last rail budget," Chavan said in a statement.

"The demand for additional railway tracks and doubling of single tracks was made by elected representatives from the state but the budget only spoke of Aurangabad-Chalisgaon and Solapur-Tuljapur rail line survey, and of (laying) fourth track on Kasara-Igatpuri line, besides (induction of) 864 rakes for the Mumbai suburban railway in the next two years," he said.

Chavan said that though new fast trains like Nagpur-Bilaspur, Nagpur-Secundrabad and Mumbai-Goa are announced in the budget but no specific provision is made for them.

"There has been no provision for Pune-Nashik and Nagar-Parli railway lines for which there was demand from the people," he added.

Meanwhile, the state unit Congress president Manikrao Thakre also slammed the rail budget, saying the state government is ready to bear half of total expenditure of eight new railway projects.

"...But the budget makes no mention of the Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli and Wardha-Yavatmal-Nanded tracks which have already been sanctioned. The other projects have not been given even a clearance. The Manmad-Malegaon-Indore track has also been ignored," he said.

Thakre also said that the Centre has also ignored demands of additional funds under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) II and III.