RailEnquiry

JAIPUR: It was a celebration time in Tonk as their wait for rail connectivity will end soon. Union railway minister Pawan Bansal on Wednesday gave green signal to the proposal of rail line in Tonk by asking state government to provide free land and also spend 5o% of the total expenditure of the project, said North Western railway public relation manager Tarun Jain said. In celebration a rally was taken out in Tonk city. The residents of the city have been demanding rail connectivity for more than five decades. Rail Lao Samiti (RLS) President Salim Naqvi said, "Our two generations have not seen train in Tonk, when the other cities were well connected with bigger cities through train. But, now we hope that soon we will get rail connectivity. In 1983, a delegation including me, met the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, but our efforts went in vain as till 2013, the train in Tonk remained a distant dream. But, now, railway minister Bansal gave us new hope."

Railway Board, in a letter written on Febraury 17, 2012 to the then Rajasthan chief secretary S Ahmed mentioning, "Railways have a huge throw forward of ongoing sanctioned projects and it is not possible to take up this highly un- remunerative project due to resource crunch."

The letter further added, "However, if the state government comes forward to provide land free of cost and in addition, to share atleast 50% of the construction cost, the ministry of railways may process this project for further clearances."

In 2009-10, the then railway minister had announced survey for Ajmer-Tonk-Sawai Madhopur new rail line project in budget speech. In the survey, it was found that the abstract cost of 165kilometer of new rail project was assessed as Rs709.17crore. In the survey, it was found that the state government has to provide 724.55 hactares of land in Ajmer and Tonk and Sawai Madhopur districts. The cost of land was assessed as Rs74.87crore.

In a book written recently by Sahibzada Mohammad Abdul Moyeed Khan, acting director, of Molana Abul Kalam Azad and Persian research Institute, Tonk in book Hukran-e-Zeeshan has mentioned about the desire of erstwhile Royal family's Malika Firdaus Zamani Begum to connect Tonk with rail. Referring to a book Yaadgaar Masnad Nashini written in 1930 by Maulvi Deen Mohammad, Moyeed Khan wrote in his book that a committee (committee railway intezaam) was formed to assess the money needed for bringing the train to Tonk at that time.