Ferozepur-Patti railway track : Non availability of land by state government is main hurdle in starting this project, says Ashutosh Gangal GM, N.Rly

GM N.Rly visits Ferozepur

Ferozepur-Patti railway track : Non availability of land by state government is main hurdle in starting this project, says Ashutosh Gangal GM, N.Rly

HARISH MONGA

Ferozepur, August 18, 2022: Nine years after the ambitious 25.47km Ferozepur-Patti rail link project was given a green signal in the rail budget, the Punjab government has failed to acquire land required for the project.

The availability of land from the state government to the railways is the main hurdle in starting this project, said Ashutosh Gangal, General Manager, Northern Railway during his visit to Ferozepur on Wednesday.

He said, Ferozepur-Patti railway line was sanctioned long back but the work on this project could not be started as the required land for the tracks could not be made available to the railways. He said, I had also a meeting with the Chief Secretary Punjab at Chandigarh, on Tuesday and this issue was also discussed with him and we hope that we will get positive cooperation from the state government for handing over the land. The moment the land is handed over to us, we will proceed with further procedure of calling tenders and other formalities, and this Ferozepur-Patti railway track will be operational within a period of three years.

Talking on the new projects in Ferozepur divison, he said, one electrification work is going on the main lines, Ludhiana station is being devoted besides its yard. Besides, the project Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail – USBR link in Jammu is very important, Jalandhar station remodelling work is also going on and our efforts are to complete the projects in hand during the targeted timeline.

Commenting on the threats to railways sometimes , he said, it is a law and order issue of the state government and is maintained in coordination. Our RPF immediately shares with the concerned state government and we work on the guidelines from them to take care of security arrangements.

On Ferozepur-Haridwar train, he said, we continue to review the demand of the new trains and now another demand letter has been received, we will once again do analysis on by checking the commercial and technical feasibility and it is feasible, a proposal will be sent to the Railway Board for final approval. Similar will be the position for other such proposals.