Railways minister Piyush Goyal said there was no question of privatising public transport, but if someone brings a new technique to build stations or high speed trains, then those will be welcomed in the public-private partnership mode.
ALSO READ
- Will actor Vijay's TVK join NDA? BJP and AIADMK begin strategic talks for the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly election
- Piyush Goyal says trade talks with EU and US see substantial progress, but no negotiation in haste
- Piyush Goyal's cryptic warning to the US on Russia ties: 'India decides its friends based on national interest, not somebody's...'
- Price cuts, record electronics and massive car sales: Cabinet ministers Sitharaman, Goyal, Vaishnaw on GST 2.0
- Balanced, mutually beneficial India-EU free trade deal SOON: Union Minister Piyush Goyal
- 'Unilateral actions': Piyush Goyal dismisses Trump tariffs, hints at trade deals with Oman and Qatar
Goyal was replying at the end of a marathon debate which lasted over 12 hours. In all, 99 MPs spoke in the house, while many others submitted their written speeches, thus taking the overall number to 162.
The minister's reference to 2006 train blasts, that had there been a Modi government a strong response would have been given, drew protests from the Congress members.
Goyal quoted figures to claim that the pace of work has picked up during the NDA regime as compared to the previous governments. “Between 2009-14, 3,038 kilomters of rail lines were electrified, but during the last five years 13,687 kilometers were electrified.In 64 years, track kilometres were only increased by 12,000, but it increased over one lakh in last five years,” Goyal said. Opposition MPs questioned the minister over these figures. Later, the minister corrected and said that 5,000 kilometres were constructed during NDA regime.
The minister took a jibe at the UPA government saying that in 2007-08, a modern coach factory was set up but it did not produce even one coach. Instead, coaches from other factories were brought in for paint. But, with Modi government at the helm, the manufacturing was started. The factory has a capacity to produce 1,000 coaches, currently producing more than 700 coaches. PM has planned to increase the production and capacity to 5,000 coaches to make it the biggest coach factory in the world.
Referring to the number of accidents, Goyal said the number of train accidents has gone down. Between 2004-09, there were 206 accidents every year. Between 2009-11, it came down to 153 every year, and now it has been brought under 100.
He claimed the pace of work in installing bio toilets, escalators has increased. Goyal said that even after 67 years of Independence, a manual system of maintaining train time was done at stations. But, this government brought in data loggers. This brought problems to the fore, thus helping the officers to improve the system of punctuality.
Minister said in some of the Opposition ruled states like Kerala and West Bengal, some of the rail projects were hanging for over decades. He said projects were hanging as no land allotment was done.
