Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train work in full swing; 97% land acquisition completed in Gujarat

News Agency, New Delhi: Work on Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train scheme is underway. Under this, 99.7 per cent land acquisition has been done in Gujarat and more than 750 pillars have been erected. Bridges have also been built on Narmada and Tapi rivers, ‘Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Vaishnav also informed that the current speed of railways is being increased from 160 kmph to 200 kmph. Work is underway to make the country’s railway stations of international standard. Under this, work has been done on an experimental level at Rani Kamalapati station in Gandhinagar and Bhopal, he added.

Railways need no recruitment drive

Vaishnav also clarified that there is no need for special recruitment drive to fill the vacancies for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Railways. The recruitment is being done regularly by the railway administration after a certain period of time, so there is no need to launch a special recruitment drive, said Vaishnav. Vaishnav also informed that the Railways had launched a special recruitment drive in 2008 to fill the backlog in the recruitment of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.

66 proposals for FDI approved

New Delhi: As on April 18, 2020, 347 proposals for foreign direct investment (FDI) worth Rs 75,951 crore have been received from India’s neighbors. Of these, 66 proposals have been approved, ‘Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Somprakash said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The 66 approved proposals are in the areas of automobile, chemical, computer software and hardware, pharma, education, electronics, food processing, information and broadcasting, machine tools, petroleum and natural gas, energy and services.

‘Four universities without full-time vice-chancellors’

New Delhi: Four Union universities in the country are operating full-time without Vice-Chancellors, Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. These universities include National Sanskrit University in Andhra Pradesh, Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Bihar, Central University of Kashmir in Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha Central University in Odisha.