ASTC-NF Railway and IWT-NRL MoUs signed
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the State Government is trying its best to make the state administration efficient and transparent through reforms in several sectors. He also said that the government takes decisions quickly to expedite development.
The Chief Minister said this at the signing of two MoUs, one between ASTC and NF Railway and the other between the State IWT (Inland Water Transport) Department and NRL, here today.
The ASTC-NF Railway Agreement will lead to an exchange of lands. Around five bighas of ASTC’s land at Paltanbazar will go to NF Railway, which will hand over its 20 bighas of land to ASTC at Jalukbari Point. NF Railway will have its Rs 700-crore world-class second entry point to Guwahati Railway Station from the Paltanbazar side, besides a thorough renovation giving the railway station a new look. The existing ASTC office at Paltanbazar will also get a boost. At the NF Railway’s land at Jalukbari, ASTC will set up another ISBT (Inter-State Bus Terminus).
The MoU between IWT and NRL will let the former get fuel supplies for all its ferries from the oil company.
The Chief Minister said, “The ferries of IWT guzzle 12 lakh litres of diesel a year. It purchases the oil from various oil depots in the state. There are reports in the media about the anomalies in the purchase of fuel, though I am not sure about that. This MoU with NRL will put an end to all lacunae, if any, as we will make the payment for fuel to NRL directly. We have made many such reforms that are strong enough to bring about transparency in work, besides making the administration efficient. For instance, it took only six months to hand over the ASTC land to NF Railway after we had conceived the idea.”
The Chief Minister said, “For Assam and the Northeast, NF Railway spends around Rs 10,000 crore annually as compared to around Rs 2,000 crore annually earlier. NF Railway has a proposal for a railway bridge connecting Tezpur and Silghat and a new railway line from Agyathuri to Kamakhya, including a new railway bridge over the Brahmaputra. In the past nine years, NF Railway converted 212 km of MG to BG and made a 200-km single BG line double BG line in Assam.”
He said that Guwahati Railway Station was constructed in 1900. “At present, the railway station witnesses an annual footfall of one crore with a growth rate of 15-20 percent.”That is why we want to make the Guwahati Railway Station a world-class station,” he said.
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