Railway dept won't get a single penny in 2012/13

Though the government plans to lay down 4,000 km railway lines across the country within the next 20 years, it has not allocated even a penny for the Department of Railway (DoR) - the implementing agency - for the coming fiscal year 2012/13.
“Our parent ministry, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW), has not arranged budget for us for the upcoming fiscal year. I have been asked to get budget from the Department of Roads,” Ram Prasad Lamsal, director general of DoR, told Republica.
The government had formed DoR in June last year with an aim to speed up the process of laying down railway lines.
Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi, however, said the government has allocated budget for DoR. “The only thing is that it hasn´t been allocated under a separate heading due to some technical reasons,” Tripathi said.
Sources at the finance ministry, which is in the process of planning budget for the next fiscal year, admit that there has been no budgetary allocation for DoR. “We allocate budget as per the request of the concerned ministry,” Lok Darshan Regmi, joint secretary of Ministry of Finance said. “MoPPW didn´t propose separate budget for DoR for the coming fiscal year.”
The government had allocated Rs 7 million to DoR as recurrent expenditure in the current fiscal year. It had established the department with a vision of developing 4,000 km railway line across the country, including the East-West Railway, Kathmandu-Pokhara Railway, Kathmandu-Tibet Railway and railway lines that connect major bordering towns of India and Nepal, within 20 years.
Moreover, it is supposed to oversee management of railway, metro rail, ropeways and cable car lines in the country.
“If we are to get budget from the Department of Roads, what is the point behind forming a separate department,” Lamsal said.
Ironically, the government has identified East-West Railway as a national pride project and most of the railway projects are in the government´s first priority (P1).
Minister Tripathi, who said DoR was not allocated budget due to technical reasons, throughout the week was lobbying with the government through parliamentary committees to allocate budget for Jayanagar-Bijulpura railway.