MP Shwait Malik takes stock of Amritsar railway station’s development

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 12

The much sought after Amritsar-Ferozepur rail link that was ‘gazetted’ by the state Congress government, may end up as a political gimmick, felt Rajya Sabha MP Shwait Malik, who held a review meeting on Thursday with DRM Dr Seema Sharma and other senior officials about redeveloping the Amritsar railway station with airport-like world-class facilities.

Amritsar railway station is one of the four stations that have been selected to be redeveloped on the basis of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Ltd (IRSDC) — a project implementation wing of the Railways.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress-led government in the state, Malik said it was the lax attitude of the state government that failed to acquire the requisite 60 acre land to facilitate the Railways in laying the 25.47-km Patti-Makhu rail link connecting Amritsar and Ferozepur.

The state government issued a notification in June only and on October 18, the Cabinet announced to acquire the land. The project to connect Amritsar with Ferozepur was conceived when Dr Manmohan Singh was the PM and Pawan Bansal the Railways Minister.

“The state government was to provide encumbrance-free land, but it lingered on for over 10 years. When I became the Rajya Sabha member in 2016, I raised this issue in the Parliament and got Rs299 crore sanctioned. But this amount remained non-utilised as the state government could not spare Rs40 crore to acquire the land for the last four-and-a—half years,” he said.

Once the project is executed, a new rail route will be available from Amritsar to Mumbai and the states of Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan will also be connected.

“After the construction of this rail link, the Indian Army will get a huge relief in commuting and the passengers from the state, too, will get many new trains to visit other states. Punjab will also benefit economically with the exchange of hosiery and agricultural products,” he said.

Under the Amritsar station redevelopment plan, development work of Rs500 crore was done and now the Centre will utilise Rs300 crore to develop the outer parts of the station.

“Now, there is clean drinking water, five lifts, two escalators, beautiful granite platforms, air-conditioned waiting rooms equipped with 250 chairs, scanners, 34 CCTV cameras, automatic boom barriers. Simultaneously, 3-star and 5-star hotels, food courts and goods rooms will be built at both Civil Lines and Gol Bagh sides of the Amritsar railway station,” he said.

To avoid unnecessary expenditure on electricity, solar system has been installed at the railway station for electricity supply.

AGM of Northern Railway Men’s Union held

• Northern Railway’s Additional General Manager Navin Gulati inaugurated the three-day annual general meeting (AGM) of the Northern Railway Men’s Union here on Friday
• Shiv Gopal Mishra, general secretary of the union, sought cancellation of amendments introduced in the Labour Code. He said the employees strongly flay the changes made to restructure the 200-year-old Ordnance Factory Board that operates 41 ammunition and military equipment production facilities into seven state-owned entities
• Meanwhile, the anticipated inauguration of the Chheharta railway station, nearly 4 km from the local station, did not take place. Sources said the inauguration could have taken place if the General Manager had arrived

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