To ease congestion and bottlenecks at Metros, the Railways propose to develop mega terminals at Chitpur in Kolkata and Anand Vihar in Delhi, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar announced while presenting 2003-04 Rail Budget in Lok Sabha on Wednesday

The Minister proposed to upgrade the rail infrastructure in Mumbai by launching the phase one of Mumbai Urban Transport Project, which would go a long way in reducing overcrowding in suburban rail system.

The project involves a loan component of Rs 1613 crore (RS 16.13 billion), which has been sanctioned by World Bank, he said adding the project is expected to be completed in five years.

The extension of circular railway from Princeghat to Majerhat and its connection to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport in Kolkata is to be completed by Dec 2004 to ease suburban traffic.

He also announced that the section from Tambaram to Chengalpattu near Chennai is to be completed by March 2004. It has been decided to provide a direct link between Chennai

Central and Chennai Egmore to benefit commuters besides completing MRTS works between Tirumailai to Vellacherry by June 2003.

The multi-modal transport system for the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad was making satisfactory progress and upgradation of railway infrastructure in the city is to be completed by March this year, Kumar said.

He proposed to give a facelift to the stations on the circular railway at Kolkata to improve the overall ambience on the banks of river Hooghly.

PTI