The Minister of Railways, Kumari Mamata Banerjee has said that a Special Task Force will be set up to clear proposals for investments within 100 days. Presenting the Railway Budget for 2010-11 in Parliament today, the Minister said that the policy guidelines in this regard will be made easy, simple and investment friendly.
The Minister said that the route-kms of the Railways was 53,596 kms in 1950. After a span of 58 years, we have now reached only 64,015 kms adding just 10,419 kms an annual average of only 180 kms. She said the Railways needs connectivity for industries, ports, tourist centres, universities, religious places, coal mines etc.,and that is why the Ministry has set a target to add 25,000 kms of new lines in the next ten years as outlined in Vision 2020.
Kumari Mamata Banerjee said for the first time ever, in line with our vision, Railways is planning a major jump to complete 1,000 route-kms of new lines in one year with the limited resources. She said this is a path-breaking step, considering the annual average of 180 route-kms of new lines in the last 58 years and 219 route-kms in the last five years.