Railway budget disappointing: Nitish Kumar

PATNA - Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Friday expressed disappointment over the railway budget for 2011-12, saying it had hardly given anything new to the state.

“The railway budget has disappointed us. It is contrary to our expectations. There is nothing new for Bihar in the railway budget,” Nitish Kumar, a former railway minister, told reporters here Friday after Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee presented her budget in parliament.

He said that it was difficult to understand the budget unless it was studied fully. “It appears that Indian Railways is passing through a financial crunch as per the railway budget read out by Mamta Banerjee,” he said.

Without naming Banerjee’s predecessor Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar wondered what happened to the claim of Rs.1 lakh crore profit made by the former railway minister.

Last week, Nitish Kumar had urged Banerjee to complete various railway projects in Bihar in time as well as run new trains on different routes in the state, including a high speed Duranto Express between Patna and New Delhi.

In a letter to the railway minister outlining his wishlist from the railway budget, he demanded that all railway projects in Bihar be completed in a time-bound manner in the interests of the state and extended his government’s cooperation and necessary assistance to the railway authorities for this purpose.