Rail bridge projects hit roadblock

The ambitious project of building four railway mega-bridges at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) has hit a block because of lack of interest from the World Bank.

Of the four bridges, only the proposed Munger Bridge over the river Ganges had managed to elicit some response from the multilateral agency, which was still examining the feasibility report, railway ministry officials told Business Standard.

Even though the construction of the bridges was sanctioned two years ago, funds were yet to be tied up. The officials said though negotiations with the World Bank for the Munger bridge were on, it seemed reluctant on extending support. The Bank, they said, wanted to take up other projects.

"The World Bank has evinced interest in other basket of projects, including doubling and safety works, instead of funding the construction of these bridges," an official said.

The railway ministry had, in fact, recently made a presentation to the World Bank asking for $8 billion assistance. It has requested for $4 billion for the Sudoor Kshetra Samparka Yojana, $2 billion for the modernisation plan, $1 billion for safety projects and another $1 billion for throughput enhancement.

Officials said the finance ministry had sought the World Bank's assistance for Phase-I of the Rs 1,000 crore (R 10 billion) Munger Bridge and the government was expecting over Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) assistance.

For the Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra river, the World Bank has recommended that the government should take it up as a project of social importance.

The ministry officials, however, said the remaining two bridges might not be taken up at all. The project for building the bridges was announced as the part of National Rail Vikas Yojana. In addition to Munger and Bogibeel, another bridge over the Ganges in Patna and one over the Kosi river in Nirmali were a the part of the project.

The absence of economic bankability has resulted in the mega-bridge projects being taken out of the purview of the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. The RVNL is a special purpose vehicle to implement the NRVY through public-private partnership.