Title - Rail Budget 2013: Railway tracks jamming roads - Budget sanctions no help

KANPUR: For the second time, the rail budget has allowed a traffic survey for Kanpur area in connection with the Panki-Mandhana new line project. The survey was approved in last year's rail budget as well but even after a year, the rail link between Panki-Mandhana was not established. In this year's budget too, electrification of Kalyanpur-Kanpur Anwarganj railway route has been given green signal which means the survey work for connecting Panki with Mandhana actually holds no meaning. The city traders and locals on the other hand have been holding demonstrations for past couple of years demanding scrapping of the Anwarganj-Mandhana railway line citing it to be the cause of major traffic jams in the city. The traders instead wanted that a rail network between Mandhana and Panki be established so that the chaos caused by the railway crossings ends. When the Kalyanpur-Anwarganj railway route which falls on the Mandhana-Anwarganj track will be electrified, it will hold no meaning for conducting a traffic survey between Panki and Mandhana. The electrification work is to be completed within 2012-13.

Attacking Sriprakash Jaiswal, local MP and Coal Minister, who had assured traders that problem of jams caused by the Anwarganj-Mandhana railway line would be addressed, Gyanesh Mishra general secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal said, "The minister has made a fool of the Kanpur citizens. While the copy of the budget reads that a traffic survey of Panki-Mandhana would be conducted to find out possibilities of rail travel between the two stations, the electrification of Anwarganj-Kalyanpur section will also be done alongside. It is not possible that the two jobs could be done together. Either the railway line is removed or it remains as it is," said Mishra angrily.

He added that with 19 railway crossings falling between Anwarganj and Mandhana, the entire city is prone to jams . He also said these railway crossings divide the city into two halves.

Raje Gupta president of Gumti Vyapar Mandal also condemned the decision taken to electrify the Anwarganj-Kalyanpur railway route and added that heavy jams will spell the end of business and trading in prominent markets lying close to this railway line especially in Gumti Market, 80 feet Road, P Road and Jarib Chowki to name a few.

Meanwhile, work of erecting poles for conducting electrification is nearing completion. A couple of months ago, the electricity poles had been erected on a long stretch of railway route between the Anwarganj and Kalyanpur railway stations. The completion of electrification work will ensure the number of trains on this railway route will increase. At present 18 trains including express and goods trains pass through the stretch. The number of trains passing through will swell in near future. The only way left to address the problem would be construction of rail-over bridges but the traders still do not find the idea viable as ROBs constructed near the markets close to the railway crossing will dent their business blocking their shops.