The Hindu : Front Page : Vallarpadam: Centre promises more help

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 23, 2005

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Front Page

Vallarpadam: Centre promises more help

Special Correspondent

To provide Rs.374 crores for road connectivity; Rs.246 crores for rail connectivity

NEW DELHI: The Central Government has decided to take upon itself the task of providing road and rail connectivity to the Vallarpadam Container Terminal project in view of the difficulties expressed by the Kerala Government in putting in place such infrastructure on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis.

Provision will be made for this in next year's Union Budget, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told mediapersons here on Thursday after meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. He said the Centre would provide Rs.374 crores for road connectivity and Rs.246 crores for rail connectivity. Since the terminal itself would come up over three years, the entire allocation for rail and road connectivity could well be staggered.

Though the Chief Minister could not meet Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to discuss the situation arising out of the bifurcation of the Palakkad Railway Division, 22 MPs from the State on Thursday met the Prime Minister and sought his intervention in the creation of a separate Kerala railway zone.

Objecting to the bifurcation of the Palakkad Division to create a Salem Division, they said these two, along with the Thiruvananthapuram Divisions, should be taken together to grant Kerala's long-pending demand for a railway zone of its own.

On FACT, the Chief Minister said the Government had finalised a Rs.683-crore revamp package and it would soon be put up for clearance. The Centre was working out a development package for Hindustan Newspaper Limited worth Rs.700 crores.

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