Traffic halted for months, Railways needs more time for upgrade

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 6

Even as the movement of trains had been stalled for over 11 months at the Amritsar railway station, the Railways needs more time to develop minor stations in and around the city.

The Northern Railway’s Ferozepur division has been working towards augmenting capacity building at the Amritsar railway station by developing minor stations situated in its periphery for the past many years.

The ambitious approach was chalked out to meet the rising railway traffic and footfall of passengers. Over the years, it had become a common grievance of passengers that trains were unnecessarily halted at unscheduled stops on the city outskirts. It had increased the waiting period for approaching trains, which had to wait on the city outskirts for the platform to clear.

Work on to develop minor stations

• For the past many years, the Ferozepur division of the Northern Railway has been working enhancing capacity building at the Amritsar railway station by developing minor stations situated in its periphery.
• The plan was chalked out following complaints that trains were unnecessarily halted at unscheduled stops on the city outskirts, leading to an increase in waiting period for approaching trains..

The Khasa and Chheharta stations, which fall on the Amritsar-Attari railway line, were to be upgraded.

The basic structure already existed at these minor stations and there was a need to augment facilities, infrastructure and amenities to handle the passenger rush and trains.

The Chheharta railway station, which is over 4 km from the main Amritsar station, is being developed to act as a washing line. Rajesh Aggarwal, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ferozepur division, said two trains would be cleaned and washed simultaneously. “It takes at least 10 hours to wash a train,” he said.

Operation of goods trains from the Chheharta railway station will be shifted to the Khasa station, where some office structures are being raised. The Chheharta station was used to load and unload merchandise and earned monthly revenue of Rs 9 crore.

The DRM said two platforms had already been made operational at the main railway station to accommodate the daily arrival of 76 trains on average and departing of as many trains. He said it would be finished this year.

“Bhagtanwala, which is already handling loading and unloading of cargo, needs more infrastructure to handle the rush once the situation normalises,” he said.

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