Ahead of NITI Aayog Nod, IR mulls Tenders for 77 Rail Projects

Ahead of NITI Aayog Nod, IR mulls Tenders for 77 Rail Projects

New Delhi: Struggling to meet deadlines for the execution of 77 rail projects announced in the Budget, the Railway board is now considering a proposal to permit the Railways to invite tenders even for projects awaiting in-principle approval from NITI Aayog.

The Railway Board announced this in an order to all 17 zonal railways last week, stating that the proposal was under consideration so as to further accelerate execution of 77 doubling projects.

“The proposal is at a very advanced stage and is likely to be approved within a couple of working days. Zonal railways will be informed as and when the same is approved,” said the order issued on October 9.

Providing a list of 13 projects sent to NITI Aayog, the board asked zonal railways to be ready to float tenders for such projects. The projects include one each in on the east coast, east central, south western, two in south-eastern, three in south central and five in south-east central.

The Prime Minister’s Office had expressed concern over the slow pace of work in the Railways. In a letter to the ministry last week, the Prime Minister’s Office questioned its low budgetary spending in the April-June quarter while ministries such as road transport were doing good work. The Railway Board in August allowed zonal railways to float tenders immediately after ‘in-principle’ approval was received from NITI Aayog with sanction from the competent authority to be sought later. The idea was that these projects were to be completed with funds from extra budgetary resources and needed to be commenced at the earliest to make significant progress in the current financial year.

“Therefore in order to facilitate taking up of these projects in right earnest, it has been decided that since DPR (detailed project report) contains detailed estimate of a project duly approved by the General Manager of the Railway, the same stand sanctioned as and when the project is sanctioned by the competent authority,” said the order.

The board has also warned officials to take utmost care while preparing estimates for the projects to ensure that infructuous items are not loaded on the project.