(a) whether the Railways have not finalized projects under BOLT scheme resulting in delay in execution of several urgent projects;
(b) if so, the reaction of the Government thereto;
(c) whether the Railways had not made any efforts to explore the possibilities of securing internal/external aid;
(d) if so, the reasons therefore; and
(e) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI DIGVIJAY SINGH)
(a) to (e) A statement is attached.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1026 BY SHRI SADASHIVRAO DADOBA
MANDLIK TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 1.3.2001 REGARDING
PROJECTS UNDER BOLT SCHEME.
(a) & (b) The Railways had tried to execute certain
infrastructure projects under the BOLT scheme. However, the
scheme, as prepared, proved to be unattractive to the
investors, resulting in poor response. There is only one on-
going project, namely gauge conversion of Mudkhed-Adilabad
section, which was awarded under BOLT scheme. In view of
this, a review of the scheme has been done, so as to make it
investor friendly. Modified bid documents have been drafted
and sent to the Law Ministry for vetting. Once these
documents have been drafted and sent to the Law Ministry for
vetting. Once these documents are finally approved by the
Government, bids would be invited for identified projects.
(c) to (e) The Railways make efforts to secure external
aid for some of their projects by holding discussions with
Bilateral and Multilateral Agencies for this purpose. The
external aid is routed through the Ministry of Finance to
the Railways as part of the budgetary support afforded to
the Railways. Presently, such external aid is being
utilized for the following ongoing Railways projects:-
(i) ADB loan (No. 857 -IND) is being used to finance
procurement of high horse power electric locomotives and
transfer of technology for indigenous manufacture of these
locomotives. The total amount of ADB loan is US $ 181.4
million, of which an amount of US $ 175.5 million has
already been disbursed.
(ii) Saudi Fund for Development has extended a loan (Loan
No. 3/188) to partly finance the construction of broad gauge
Railway line between Koraput and Rayagada. The total loan
amount is SR 103.2 million, of which SR 73.38 million has
already been disbursed.
(iii) Kreditanstalt for Wiederafbau (Kfw), Germany has
extended a loan of DM 185 million for the project of
modernization of signaling between Ghaziabad and Kanpur.
The loan has not been drawn so far.
(iv) French Mixed Credit of FF 60 million to finance
procurement of 38 sets of AC/DC Dual Voltage Traction Drive
System on EMUs has since been agreed to by the French
Government and the disbursement is expected to commence
shortly.
In addition, discussions are also currently on which
the Asian Development Bank for a loan of US$ 300 million to
finance the Railway Sector Improvement Project.
Similarly, world Bank has been approached for a new
loan to part finance the Mumbai Urban Transport Project,
which is to be implemented jointly by the Government of
Maharashtra and the Railways.
Internal aid is also availed by the Railways in the
form of budgetary support from the Central Government for
capital expenditure on projects.