8 years on, locals await railway underpass near Abohar station

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Raj Sadosh

Abohar, December 25

Even after Rs 210 crore renovation work of the Abohar Railway Station under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is ongoing and electrification of Bathinda-Abohar-Sriganganagar track has also been completed, the plan to run electric trains by the end of the year may not be possible. When a team of senior officials from Ambala Rail Division inspected the preparations on November 15 using an electric train, it surfaced that the power grid station at Killianwali to ensure electricity supply, has not been set up.

Moreover, there are no signs of construction of a railway underpass at B-50 manual rail crossing (phatak), located near the station. Since as many as 28 trains pass through this rail crossing, it gets shut frequently. While hundreds of vehicles get stuck in the traffic jams caused by the crossing, bikers can be seen violating the rules and risking their lives by crossing in unsafe manner.

On June 4, 2015, railway engineers had asked Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials to shift the main sewerage line at the earliest to facilitate the construction of an underpass. A sum of Rs 5.58 crore was also allocated for the work. Earlier on August 14, 2013, a team led by Ambala Division Railway Manager had arrived at a consensus to provide railway under bridge (RuB) or underpass at the rail crossing.

Cut to 2023, the underpass remains on paper. While the locals blame SAD MP Sukhbir Singh Badal for not taking up the matter with the Centre, Sukhbir said that he, on May 16, 2023, had met Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the latter had assured to take due action on all civil works, including construction of railway under bridges.