Rlys rule out Manawala as satellite station

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, January 20

though the Railway’s Ferozepur division had pronounced to develop three satellite railway stations around Amritsar to de-congest its main local station over a year ago, the operating branch of the Railway Board, the highest decision making body in the Ministry of Railway, has ruled developing one of these stations.

In response to a query from a local resident Rahul, operating branch said Bhagtanwala and Chheharta stations had already been proposed as satellite stations of Amritsar and would be developed accordingly. However, Manawala railway station, which falls before Amritsar Railway station, would not serve the purpose.

Over the years, a majority of passengers have complained that their trains were halted unnecessarily at unscheduled stoppages at nearby stations or close to the local railway station. Many passengers, especially daily commuters, rued that the majority of trains were stopped outside the city, awaiting clearance of platform at the railway station.

On the other hand, railway officials cite paucity of platforms on the railway station as the prime reason behind holding back trains.

As per the data available with the Railways, all six platforms (1, 1-A, 2, 3, 4 and, 5) at the local railway station handle departure and arrival of over 130 trains daily. There was a footfall of over 30,000 passengers at the station daily.

Though the number of trains and passengers has swelled since the setting up of the Amritsar railway station, it has been waiting to add new platforms for the past several decades.

As the addition of more platforms was mired by technical non-approval, the Railways decided to upgrade satellite railway stations around the city. All trains on Amritsar – Hoshiarpur railway track are short terminated at Manawala railway station. It falls on the busiest Amritsar-Delhi railway line. Some trains between Amritsar-Pathankot railway line are short terminated at Verka railway station. Similarly, all trains between Amritsar-Khemkarana-Tarn Taran stretch are short terminated at Bhagtanwala railway station.

Northern Railway’s Ferozepur division, which administers Amritsar railway station, came out with a solution of short termination of passenger trains at these stations to decongest the high train traffic at the holy city’s railway station.

The decision to develop three satellite railway stations was taken in March 2015 and it was implemented in the middle of last year.