No time frame for Chandigarh railway station upgrade work: Minister

No time frame can be indicated for completion of the Chandigarh railway station upgrade, said Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in reply to a query by city MP Manish Tewari during the ongoing session in the Lok Sabha.

The MP today sought the details of budgetary allocation and utilisation for the renovation of the railway station, phase-wise. He asked whether the government had set a timeline for the completion of the renovation work. If so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons for the delay and the reason for halting the renovation work. He wanted to know the time by which the government planned to resume it, and the expected timeline for its completion.

In reply to the questions, the minster stated that the Ministry of Railways had identified Chandigarh station for redevelopment under ‘Amrit Bharat Station Scheme’ at a cost of nearly Rs 436 crore. The scheme envisaged development of railway station on a continuous basis with a long-term approach.

“The redevelopment of the Chandigarh railway station has progressed well and the structural works for station building on both Panchkula and Chandigarh sides have been completed. The works of air concourse, foot overbridges, parking, etc, have also been taken up,” he said.

The minister added that development/redevelopment of railway stations was complex in nature involving safety of passengers and trains and required various statutory clearances such as fire clearance, heritage, tree cutting, airport clearance, etc.

“The progress also gets affected due to brownfield-related challenges such as shifting of utilities, including water/sewage lines, optical fibre cables, gas pipe lines, power/signal cables, etc, restrictions due to works carried out in proximity to high-voltage power lines. All these factors affect the completion time,” he said, adding that therefore, no time frame could be indicated at this stage.

Renovation/redevelopment work of the Chandigarh railway station has not been stopped since it started on January 11 last year, he clarified.