Amritsar: Six years after opening of International Dry Port, Khasa railway station lies underutilised

Nearly six years after International Dry Port (IDP) was opened at the Khasa railway station, it is being used to load about 20 trains a month of rice and wheat.

Sources in Railways stated that then these sacks of grain are transported to government warehouses at Majitha, Attari, Chabal, Bharariwal and several other areas.

In addition, trains bring in paper, fertiliser and coal from different parts of the country and then offload these here.

The IDP at the Khasa railway station has been working under its capacity since the import of dry fruit, fresh fruit, herbs and spices with Afghanistan came to a halt last year. Importers and exporters are of the view that the resumption of trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan would make it one of the busiest dry ports.

Rameshinder Singh Sandhu, a travel writer, who hails from the village, says before the capacity expansion and development of the Khasa railway station into the IDP, its colonial-era building was pulled down, erasing over century old memories and charm of the villagers.

This will be turned into dry-port loading and unloading merchandise, to and fro Pakistan, as part of the comprehensive scheme to decongest the Amritsar railway station. Under this plan, cargo-handling operations from the Chheharta railway station were shifted to the Khasa railway station.

A state-of-the-art electronic interlocking system was made operational at the Khasa railway station.

The railway station is the last stop for trains before the final border station of Attari. Not being a busy station, where only two passenger trains pass — one in the morning and one in the evening — from Amritsar to Attari, it has often featured in several films, including Salman Khan starrer “Bharat”, which showcased the same station in its trailers.

It was shown as one of the railway stations during the Partition.