§ MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, W.)To ask the Secretary of State for India if he will state at what date it is expected that the survey of the Quetta-Nushki railway project will be completed, and how much of the forty-seven lakhs provided for that scheme will be expended on the surveys; and whether, when the survey Report is sent in, the Council of India in its Public Works Department will be free to reconsider the project so as to determine between the expenditure upon this scheme or on the promotion of feeder lines in aid of the existing railways in fertile districts inside India, or on the augmentation of the grants for water storage and smaller irrigation works.
(Answered by Secretary Lord George Hamilton.) I understand that the survey is completed, but until the accounts are received it is impossible to state the exact cost of these operations. The authority of the Secretary of State in Council as fixed by law provides ample opportunity for the consideration and reconsideration of this and other projects.