NEW DELHI: Railway minister Pawan Bansal on Wednesday said he would reach out to key UPA ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which has strongly criticized the rail budget while alleging neglect of Maharashtra.
The minister also expressed willingness to engage all political outfits and people's representatives who were unhappy with the budget proposals.
This is seen as an indication of railways' willingness to meet the demands of Samajwadi Party and BSP which had bailed out the UPA government on several occasions, including lending tacit support in Rajya Sabha over FDI in multi-brand retail.
"We have tried to meet the demands of everyone. I am ready to talk to them (NCP) to know why they are disappointed," Bansal told TOI when asked about the NCP's disappointment. "I am ready to talk to everyone," he added.
While NCP protested that the budget had "totally neglected" the problems faced by 80 lakh commuters in Mumbai, the railways maintained that 32 new trains were given to Maharashtra, including extension of services and increase of frequencies.
In his budget, Bansal announced 72 new local services across the suburban rail network in Mumbai, accepted the long-pending demand of AC local trains and conversion of nine-coach local trains into 12-coach trains.
"Sufficient allocation of Rs 4,047.19 crore has been made for Mumbai Metropolitan Project," an official said, adding that a multi-disciplinary training institute for training in rail-related electronics technologies would also be set up in Nagpur.
Some ambitious rail projects such as high speed trains and elevated rail corridors are slated to be executed in Maharashtra. While the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor has been selected for running bullet trains at 300 km per hour, the elevated Virar-Churchgate line will be the first in the country to have AC suburban trains.
Maharashtra has also got new Durantos and Shatabdis along with a proposal to revamp 20 railway stations, including Mumbai and Pune.
The minister also expressed willingness to engage all political outfits and people's representatives who were unhappy with the budget proposals.
This is seen as an indication of railways' willingness to meet the demands of Samajwadi Party and BSP which had bailed out the UPA government on several occasions, including lending tacit support in Rajya Sabha over FDI in multi-brand retail.
"We have tried to meet the demands of everyone. I am ready to talk to them (NCP) to know why they are disappointed," Bansal told TOI when asked about the NCP's disappointment. "I am ready to talk to everyone," he added.
While NCP protested that the budget had "totally neglected" the problems faced by 80 lakh commuters in Mumbai, the railways maintained that 32 new trains were given to Maharashtra, including extension of services and increase of frequencies.
In his budget, Bansal announced 72 new local services across the suburban rail network in Mumbai, accepted the long-pending demand of AC local trains and conversion of nine-coach local trains into 12-coach trains.
"Sufficient allocation of Rs 4,047.19 crore has been made for Mumbai Metropolitan Project," an official said, adding that a multi-disciplinary training institute for training in rail-related electronics technologies would also be set up in Nagpur.
Some ambitious rail projects such as high speed trains and elevated rail corridors are slated to be executed in Maharashtra. While the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor has been selected for running bullet trains at 300 km per hour, the elevated Virar-Churchgate line will be the first in the country to have AC suburban trains.
Maharashtra has also got new Durantos and Shatabdis along with a proposal to revamp 20 railway stations, including Mumbai and Pune.
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