Ministry of surface transport secretary R Vasudevan told The Financial Express that a meeting was held between him and Shanti Narain, member (traffic), Railway Board, last week for working out the contours of the action plan.

Sources added that the group was formed at the behest of union minister Nitish Kumar who heads both the ministries and is reportedly keen on announcing some concrete measures in this direction before the general elections. According to Vasudevan, the group would soon bring out an approach paper which would enlist projects that can be taken up for immediate implementation. Some half a dozen projects came up during discussions with Narain, he said. Details of various projectswould be worked out by officials of both the ministries soon. "Till now, we have been talking about integrated transport in a conceptual form. But with this, we hope to see how it can be implemented and focussed," the secretary noted.

Vasudevan cited one such project. "The ministry of surface transport can tieup with the Railways for a rail-inland water link-up between Allahabad and Guwahati in order to develop a cost-effective and faster transport chain." He claimed that goods trains which go to the north-east have to return empty resulting in a strain on railway resources.

The group would try to find out if beyond a point inland waterways could take over from the railways. It would work out how linkages among road, ports, inland waterways and railways could be created in specific regions in order to boost infrastructure. The railways has requested the ministry of surface transport to drop plans for six-laning in areas where they can expand by adding more rakes. "They feel it will be more cost-effectiveand save doubling of investment." Vasudevan said that in areas where rail network cannot reach, his ministry would take up transportation work. "The idea is to demonstrate that an integrated approach is possible," he noted.

On being asked whether such a move would have any impact on build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects which are taken up on an undertaking by respective governments that parallel facilities will not be created, the secretary replied in negative. There are already talks of the railways taking up systems which are at present being managed by ports. The ministry of surface transport does not have any objection to the proposal. However, the hitch is that the railways does not want to take over the liabilities of these systems. Vasudevan said that his ministry is holding talks with the railways on the issue.