UPA to take Bharat Nirman on rail tracks

At the receiving end of recent allegations involving a series of scams and financial irregularities, the UPA government plans to break the jinx by taking to rail tracks!

At the receiving end of recent allegations involving a series of scams and financial irregularities, the UPA government plans to break the jinx by taking to rail tracks!

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Consumed with the idea of running the Bharat Nirman Express - an exhibition train to publicise the achievements of the UPA government - officials of the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) are once again working frenetically to actualise the concept.

Original proposals of the DAVP - a department of the ministry of information and broadcasting - were to have four exhibition trains criss-cross the lengths and breadths of the country.

But saner advice from the railways is that just one Bharat Nirman train should take the tracks, to begin with.

Indications are the first of these exhibition trains will be flagged off a few months ahead of the crucial assembly elections in UP.

The Bharat Nirman is the Centre's business plan on rural infrastructure, incorporating components including rural roads, rural housing, drinking water, irrigation, rural telephony and rural electrification.

Like the earlier Red Ribbon Express (exhibition train to promote AIDS awareness), the Science Express or the Azadi Express (commemorating 150 years of the first war of Independence), the cost of refurbishing train coaches and running the trains will be borne entirely by the sponsor-agency.