Title - Villages grow a railway station

NEW DELHI: Their homes lie within earshot of the Delhi-Bathinda railway line, but for years a journey to the capital meant travelling 14km on bad roads to board a train at Karaichi station near Jind. Time and again, the nearly 1 lakh residents of these nine Haryana villages, 90km from Delhi, lobbied for a station of their own but the assurances did not materialize. Until one April day, when they came together with bricks and mortar, hoes and spades, to gift themselves the Lakhan Majra railway station.The new station inaugurated on Thursday by Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda is reportedly the brainchild of Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, and the means and material to build it came from local panchayats.As Northern Railway officers watched in awe, hundreds of locals toiled day and night to complete the station in what is the first shram daan (collaborative effort) project in the Delhi division."The station at Lakhan Majra will provide rail connectivity to nine villages — Bahasi, Kherak, Gugaheri, Nandakheri, Chiri, Poli, Indergarh and Lakhan Majra — on the Delhi-Bathinda rail route," said a senior Northern Railway officer. At least six passenger trains will halt here for a minute each on their way to and from Delhi. The Delhi DRM office confirmed that the Rohtak-Jind passenger, Delhi-Ferozepur passenger and Delhi-Jakhal passenger trains will be available immediately.

"Railway authorities granted approval for provision of a halt station at Lakhan Majra in April 2012 and the foundation stone for its construction was laid on April 13," said VK Gupta, general manager, Northern Railway. AK Sachan, divisional railway manager, termed it a "people's effort".

Shashi Chauhan, a local, said it was a "long cherished dream" of the villagers. "This was an effort of all panchayats here. Now the railways must keep their promise to give us more trains." Construction of the station and its access road ended Last Friday. Two rail-level platforms of 400m each have been built, and there are toilets and drinking water for waiting passengers. The station is situated close to the Rohtak-Jind national highway.

With a new station to serve them, the locals hope to develop the area into a cargo hub.