Title - Ludhiana-Chandigarh Rail Link : Track testing commences

Wednesday, January, 16 2013 - 11:31 LUDHIANA : The under-construction new Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link might become operational by the new dead line of March 31, 2013 fixed by the Union Railway Minister Pawan Bansal as railways have undertaken a track testing exercise on the 51 kilometre long New Morinda-Sahnenwal section.

An engine rolling operation was carried out on 37 km long New Morinda-Khamanon-Samrala-Madpura section when a lone diesel engine, with officials of engineering and construction wing of Northern Railway on board, chugged on this section on Tuesday.

Out of the 110 km length of Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link,  45 km long Chandigarh-New Morinda section is already functional while work for laying an additional track on 14 km long Ludhiana-Sahnewal section was also completed last month.

According to railway officials, the 51 km rail track from New Morinda to Sahnewal has been laid and only some minor works were remaining on this section.

Started in the year 2000, the Ludhiana-Chandigarh rail link was delayed for several reasons and it has already missed many a dead lines.

While the officials who were a part of the engine rolling exercise on New Morinda-Sahnewal section, were satisfied over the construction of the new railway track, they said a full-fledged trial run of a passenger train will be carried out after getting a final approval from the Railway Safety Organisation.

Normal railway traffic on this section is expected to commence by March 31, 2013 with addition of some new trains linking Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana with Chandigarh. Some existing trains on Ludhiana –Ambala section might also be diverted to this route as travel time will be cut down by almost half an hour, the railway officials said.