Rs25-crore railway overbridge to come up at Joura Phatak

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 26

The state government has given its approval to start construction work on a railway overbridge at Joura Phatak at a cost of Rs 25.50 crore. This was stated by Dinesh Bassi, Chairman, Amritsar Improvement Trust.

Over a year ago, at least 60 people were killed and 72 injured at Joura Phatak when the speeding Jalandhar-Amritsar DMU train mowed them down while they were celebrating Dasehra on October 19, 2018.

The overbridge would bring to end traffic chaos and will facilitate commuters on a daily basis. It was a long-pending demand of the residents to raise the overbridge at Jaura Phatak.

Improvement Trust Chairman Dinesh Bassi thanked Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and Local Bodies Minister Brahm Mohindra for granting approval of the project. He said this would give greater connectivity to the densely populated areas of the twin railway crossings. He assured that it would be constructed in a year.

He said the Northern Railway would construct the bridge while the Improvement Trust would bear the entire cost. The Improvement Trust would deposit the entire money in the account of Northern Railway soon, he added.

The overbridge would be 1,115-foot- long and 32-foot-wide with each lane of equal size (16 feet) on both sides.