Silchar, Aug. 7: Railway minister Lalu Prasad has rejected reports that his ministry has decided to stall conversion of the Silchar-Lumding metre-gauge section into broad-gauge, saying the reports were “unfounded and hence false”.

A section of the national media had reported that the ministry considered the Rs 1,498-crore mega project as not “very remunerative” and has decided to put it on hold.

The minister, on the other hand, said work of the Rs 1,498-crore project would be speeded up by March 2007.

Though the work initially progressed slowly and budget allocations were minimal, execution of the project has of late gathered momentum, he told three Congress MPs from south Assam.

They include Union minister for heavy industries Sontosh Mohan Dev, Karnendu Bhattacharjee and L.M. Shuklavaida, who had hourlong parleys with him in New Delhi on Wednesday. He also gave them an overview of the project’s progress.

Railway Board chairman J.P. Batra was also present at the meeting.

The trio told Lalu Prasad that at present the pace of the work was very “sluggish” and it has created misgivings among the people of south Assam, who are facing lack of proper transport infrastructure in their region.

However, according to a press communiqué released by Dev’s office in New Delhi, Lalu Prasad claimed that 70 per cent of the earth-cutting works was completed on a few stretches of the new line.

The railway minister also promised to look into allegations of tardy progress of construction of a railway bridge over the Barak at Badarpur in Karimganj district and at least four tunnels in the Silchar-Harangajao section of the proposed broad-gauge track.

He said all possible measures would be taken to speed up the works of the bridge and to complete the tender process for these tunnels in this winter.

The railway minister also said that during the past two financial years, the allotment for this project has been increased.

He said Rs 371 crore has been allocated for the project in the current fiscal against the Rs 225 crore earmarked during 2006-06.

When the project was sanctioned in 1995, the estimated cost was only Rs 548 crore, but the consequent delays has now escalated it to a whopping Rs 1,498 crore.

Once completed, it will reduce the time to cover the 360-km distance between Silchar and Guwahati from the usual 18 hours by metre gauge train to eight hours.