Elevated rly track for Pathankot to ease traffic bottlenecks

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, January 21

Pathankot residents got a respite when the Railway Ministry and the Punjab Government, after much haggling, finally decided to share the Rs286-crore expenditure to be incurred on elevating a 3.6-km narrow gauge line that runs within the municipal limits of the city.

There are nine railway crossings on the stretch and all of them close simultaneously at least 12 times a day when the Pathankot-Joginder Nagar toy train passes by. Traffic jams have become common. Because of this, property prices have touched their nadir and tourists travelling to Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh often give the city a miss. As a result, the hospitality industry has been brought to its knees.

When trapped in a traffic jam during his election campaign, Sunny Deol promised that if elected, he would try to find a solution. True to his word, the MP convinced Railway Ministry officials to take up the matter on priority. After several surveys, the Railways decided that the only way out was to go in for elevation with a rider that the state government would bear half the cost.

The state government, vide its letter dated December 30, 2019, has agreed to share the cost equally.

The sharing of expenditure was a bone of contention between the cash-starved state government and the Railways.

“Once the track is elevated, the city will be decongested and property prices will see a substantial rise,” said Mayor Anil Vasudeva.

In a related development, the MP has written to the Railways to start acquiring land for a 40-km-long Qadian-Beas track. In 2010, then Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had sanctioned the link, but some villagers led by a former SAD minister obstructed the process of acquiring land.

“The project holds significance because Qadian is the international headquarters of the Ahmadiyya community, while Beas is the seat of the Radha Soami sect,” said Qadian MLA Fateh Jung Singh Bajwa.

Daily gridlocks

There are nine railway crossings in Pathankot city and all of them close simultaneously at least 12 times a day when a toy train passes by. This causes severe traffic jams everyday.