Nitish

Another thing that has to be welcomed is that he is going to provide more accommodation and more seats to the second class
passengers by gradually withdrawing the first class AC Coaches and the first class coaches. I hope while withdrawing these facilities and extending
them to the second class passengers the extended comforts and facilities of the second class would further improve. I hope in all second class
coaches, cushions, seats are going to be provided. Socialism is not levelling down but socialism is levelling up when we withdraw facilities from
the higher level the facilities in the lower level should be improved so that the travelling comforts for the lower level improve. Another innovative
idea is devising the waste cost railway line which is popularly called the cocoon railway line. This railway line was initiated when previous MD
was the railway minister about 12 years ago. Once that government went out of power this scheme got to be into cold storage. Of course, in the
last year’s budget shri Madhav Rao Sindhi had made some provisions for construction of the line from Mangalore to Udi. But the construction
work had not started now Shri George Fernandez had come out with a novel idea by consisting the cities which are going to benefit out it these
Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka by raising productions from these 3 cities by raising certain productions from the power and certain productions
from the railways as well as the general exchequer. If this scheme had not been thought of and if this had not been taken up in the normal course
and under the normal procedure this railway construction would have taken 15 years to complete. Now with a new method of fina ncing this
project had been initiated. The railway minister had promised that construction of this railway line is going to be completed within 5 years. I wish
that this scheme succeeds. Not that it succeeds for the sake of the cocoon railway but this would open up a new era for taking up other essential
constructions where those projects could not be taken up because of shortage of funds. I hope the railway minister who is a person of many ideas
many innovative ideas would also think in terms of if possible self financing schemes. Every year costs go up. Any project that is done today is
cheaper than it would be tomorrow. He in his states paper has asked whether the money should come from central government or whether it
should come from railway finance corporation or from market borrowings where it is going to cost a little more. In any case I feel that these
projects important projects should not lag behind on the ground of funds not coming from the central government or state governments. Even
if it is costly the money should be borrowed from the railway finance corporation.