City hopes Rail Budget will expedite pending projects

Aarti Kapur 

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 28 

Residents of the city have pinned great hopes from the Union Budget 2017 in so far as the railways is concerned. The expectations are that projects announced for Chandigarh will be expedited when the budgetary provisions for the Railways are spelled out unlike in the past when four Rail budgets failed to ensure that projects meant for the city are able to see the light of day. 

Deadlines set for many of the projects are already over but there are some which are yet to get off the ground. In fact, the proposal for faster connectivity by increasing the speed of trains is also under consideration which the city residents have been waiting for the past one year. 

The major projects which are still in the pipeline are a double lane track between Dappar and Chandigarh, Chandigarh-Baddi link line, semi-high speed train between Chandigarh-Delhi, world class railway station, information technology industry for signal links and a training centre to impart railway-related skills.    

The deadline set for laying a double track between Dappar and Chandigarh was announced in December 2016. But the work is still in progress till date and the new deadline set by the railway officials is of March. Against a single track at the moment, the second track would reduce the travel time between Chandigarh and Dappar by at least 30 minutes.

The Chandigarh-Baddi link line, which has three stake holders including Railways, Himachal Pradesh and the Haryana Government, is yet to start. 

To prepare a feasibility report for the semi-high speed train project between Chandigarh-New Delhi, a team of experts from Société Nationale Des Chemins De Fer Français (SNCF) was hired by the Railway Ministry. The team which comprises technical experts has inspected all the tracks, curves, bridges, ROBs and stations. But the work is yet to start.  

To develop a world class railway station on 500 acres of land in Chandigarh, the Railway Board is yet to commence the work for which it is the implementing authority. The draft for giving the railway station a facelift has already been approved jointly by the Chandigarh Administration and the Railways. 

Pawan Kumar Bansal, as the Union Railway Minister, had announced the setting up of first information technology industry of the region on 400 acres of railway land and the main focus was to manufacture railway signal links and anti-collision devices. 

A training centre was also proposed to be set up in the city for the youth to impart skills related to the railways to open more employment opportunities for them in the coming years. But the project has been shelved by the railway ministry.