Title - Work on Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link to be completed by Jan 31 - Indian Express

40 km stretch yet to be completed, GM of Northern Railways inspects progress

The general manager of Northern Railways, V K Gupta, checked the work progress of the Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link, on Wednesday, and directed that the construction of the link be expedited. The project is likely to be completed by January 31, after which it will be handed over for inspection to the Commission of Railway Safety.

Divisional Railway Manager (Ambala Division) P K Sanghi said that the rail link

is expected to be completed by January 31. “Around 40 kilometres of the track is left to be completed. Once the construction is complete we will hand it over to the Commission of Railway Safety that will give the clearance,” he added.

The project is divided into three sections: A 45-km stretch in the Chandigarh-New Morinda section. A 14-km stretch in New Morinda-Sahnewal section and a 51-km stretch in Sahnewal-Ludhiana section, of which 40 km is yet to be completed.

after 12 years...

The construction of the 110-km long rail link has been going on since 2000 and several deadlines for completion have been missed due to various hurdles including trouble in acquiring land for laying the track and construction of two bridges on the remaining portion.

After taking over as the Railways Minister, Union Minister and local MP Pawan Kumar Bansal assured that one of his top priorities would be the completion of the rail link.

The link will facilitate in decongesting the Ambala-Ludhiana track as some trains could be diverted to Chandigarh-Ludhiana route.

It will also reduce the time of commute for trains like Superfast Express Train between Chandigarh and Amritsar by around an hour. At present, the time taken to commute the distance between Chandigarh and Ludhiana by train is around two and a half hours. It takes lesser time to cover this distance by road.