Jakhar meets Prabhu, seeks more rail projects
Thursday, 14/05/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Abohar : A meeting between Leader of the Opposition Sunil Jakhar and Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in New Delhi yesterday has brightened the hopes of better rail services in Abohar and its surrounding segments.
Jakhar thanked the minister for sanctioning railway under-bridge (RuB) with a budgeted cost of Rs 5.58 crore to give relief to thousands of vehicles which get held up 26 times a day due to the closure of the level crossing on the Sriganganagar road here. AK Puthia, General Manager, Northern Railway, said during the meeting that the process for the RuB had already been started. Ambala Division Railway Manager Anil Kathpal recently met Punjab Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal to get the main sewerage line shifted from the road to be used for the under-bridge.
Giving details of the meeting, Jakhar said today that he informed the minister that rail services on the 42-km Abohar-Fazilka section, inaugurated in July 2012, were not available after 2 pm even when the railways had spent more than Rs 200 crore on constructing rail lines, as more staff was needed to be deployed on the route.
He demanded that more passenger trains should be run besides launching a Sriganganagar-Abohar-Ferozepur-Beas-Amritsar-Katra special train. He also demanded that the original schedule of the Sriganganagar-Haridwar intercity express should be restored since the railways had put commuters to a lot of inconvenience besides losing revenue by extending it to Rishikesh.
Divisional Assistant Engineer Ramesh Thapar had earlier said the process for the construction of another over-bridge with a cost of Rs 7.30 crore to link Nai Abadi with the old town had been initiated. This was one of the major demands of the people here.
