CHENNAI: Now in its second year, the Consolidated Budgetary Statement (CBS) continues to omit project-wise allocation and expenditure details, making it difficult to assess the progress of railway projects in Tamil Nadu, many of which have been pending for years.
The recently released budget statement lists several works across Tamil Nadu, ranging from new lines to doubling projects, but they remain clubbed together across stages, from proposals to ongoing works, without clarity on their current status.
For decades, the Pink Book provided a financial trail for each project, the sanctioned cost, expenditure till the previous year and the allocation for the current year. This made it possible to see whether a project was progressing, slowing down or effectively stalled. Its replacement, the CBS, however, consolidates finances at the zonal and national level but does not carry those project-level details.
The earlier system showed the real progress of a project. Now, we only see that a project exists, not whether any money is actually being spent- Naveen Chander, railway activist
The latest budget document lists around 30 projects for Tamil Nadu, including six new line surveys, 14 doubling/line expansion surveys, with most largely at the survey stage.
New line proposals, such as Ariyalur-Namakkal, Tindivanam-Sedarapet and Tiruvannamalai-Tirupattur, have been assigned a few crores each for preliminary surveys. Even long-discussed projects such as Villupuram-Thanjavur and Manamadurai-Rameswaram appear in survey lists, with no indication of whether they are nearing execution or remain at early stages.
Similarly, suburban capacity works around Chennai, including additional lines between Tambaram and Chengalpattu and the Korukkupet-Basin Bridge corridor, are mentioned only in terms of surveys, with no visibility on funding. The same applies to additional lines on the Jolarpettai-Coimbatore stretch and the proposed Chennai-Bengaluru high-speed corridor.
A second layer of feasibility studies points to more corridors under consideration, including an Avadi-Sriperumbudur-Guduvancheri industrial link, a Musiri-Chennai line, and doubling works on Salem-Karur-Dindigul and Erode-Karur routes.
While the list of projects continues to expand, the document does not indicate which of these have moved beyond surveys, been sanctioned for execution or received funding in the current year. Projects that have been discussed for years and newly proposed ones appear similarly, without any indication of priority or progress. In some cases, only the original sanctioned cost is available, often an estimate made years ago, offering little insight into the current status.
The lack of clarity is more evident in projects that were earlier placed in abeyance. In 2019, five railway projects in Tamil Nadu were put on hold. While three, including the Tindivanam-Tiruvannamalai new line and the Chennai-Cuddalore corridor via Mahabalipuram, have since been taken out of abeyance, there is no indication in the current budget documents of whether funding has resumed.
"Taking a project out of abeyance is one thing. Without allocation, it remains only on paper," the activist noted.
With the removal of project-wise financial data from budget documents, those tracking railway development increasingly have to rely on other sources, including Right to Information (RTI) requests, to obtain basic details on funding and progress.
The CBS brings together financial data at a broader level and includes extensive survey listings. But without project-level allocation and expenditure figures, it does not provide a clear picture of how railway projects in Tamil Nadu are advancing on the ground.