New Delhi, February 24
Punjab and Haryana have got an economic bonanza from the Railway Budget presented by Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. He announced the doubling of the 78-km Jalandhar-Jammu Tawi line in Punjab and J&K. It will be in addition to the ongoing work on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana line, under which work on the Chandigarh-Morinda route has been completed, he said.
A survey for a new line in Punjab—Rama Mandi-Maur Mandi via Talwandi Sabo— has been proposed to be taken up this year.
In Haryana, the Railways has decided to construct a Rewari-Jhajjar-Rohtak line in three years for which the state government would share 50 per cent costs.
In the next fiscal, the Railways has promised to complete 550 km of new lines, including Udhampur-Katra and Qazigund-Badgam on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramula line.
Among the new trains are two bi-weekly trains —Saharsa-Amritsar Garib Rath (AC) via Barauni, Hajipur-Sonpur,Chhapra, Gorakhpur, and Jaipur-Amritsar Express, besides a daily DMU between Jalandhar City and Nokodar.
The Hardwar/Kalka-Jodhpur Express has been extended up to Barmer in Rajasthan via Bathinda and the frequency of the Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express has been increased from five days in a week to daily.
The Budget has also proposed to expand and modernise production facilities, including those at the RCF in Kapurthala, to supply state-of-the-art coaches for the Railways and metro trains. “We will have new coaches soon with changed ambience and modern facilities,” he said, adding that efforts would be made to start manufacturing
aluminium and stainless steel wagons.
“To face the challenges thrown up by the changing scenario, the suggestion to declare the RCF (Kapurthala) a wholly owned PSU under the Ministry of Railways, is in being considered and a decision will be taken after discussions with the factory staff and stakeholders,” Mr Yadav said.
The government has already given a go-ahead to the expansion plan of the RCF at an estimated cost of Rs 35 crore, besides the expansion of the manufacturing capacity from 1,000 coaches to 1,400 coaches per annum.
