Railway overbridge hangs fire

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 29

Around 10 years after the process to acquire land started, the construction of a railway overbridge (ROB), under Missing Link 2 project, is still hanging fire.

The Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) had paid Rs21.84 crore to the Railways for the ROB last year, but the work under its jurisdiction has not started till date. Now, GLADA will serve a legal notice on the Railways in this regard.

A city resident Davinder Kumar Khurana sought information under the RTI Act. The official concerned stated that GLADA has started the construction of an approach road at the site. The official said the bridge under the jurisdiction of the Railways is yet to be constructed. GLADA had constructed a stretch from Dhandra Road to the Dhuri railway tracks and another stretch on the Gill village more than two years ago. The ROB, when constructed, will connect these two stretches.

Sanjay Tewari of the Samaj Sudhar Sewa Society said: “Around 10 years ago, GLADA had started the process to acquire the land for the project. It had started paying people whose land was acquired for the project in 2011. We had moved court in 2015 as the project was being delayed despite spending crores for acquiring the land. Following the court orders, the GLADA had then constructed the road from Dhandra Road to the Dhuri railway tracks. The road on the Gill village side has also been constructed. But the work on ROB has not started yet. Now, we will move court again if the project is further delayed.”

As the Railways had not floated the tenders for ROB, the matter was also brought to the notice of the then Deputy Commission last year. According to the sources, the Railways had raised some issues last year related to outstanding licence fee of around Rs83 crore against some other departments under the Punjab Government. Before starting the ROB work, the Railways wanted he state government departments to deposit the outstanding fee, sources said.

PS Gill, GLADA Chief Administrator, said GLADA had already paid the amount to the Railways, but the construction work had to be carried out by the Railways. “Now, we will serve a legal notice on the Railways either to start the construction of the ROB or return money to GLADA,” he said.

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