Title - Bansal in driver’s seat, rail officials hope to fast-track projects

With the subsequent railway budgets not having much in store for the city and the projects proposed stuck in the pipeline, the railway officials are now ready with a list of tasks they hope will be expedited after the appointment of local MP Pawan Bansal as the Railway Minister.“With the appointment of the local MP as the Railway Minister, we are hopeful that the projects already in pipeline would get expedited. In fact, the region is likely to get a boost with some new proposals being expected now,” says a railways official.Among the proposals is a Chandigarh-Bengaluru train which has been in the pipeline for some time and was expected to start around two months back. The proposal for setting up escalators at the railway station is also pending. While the proposal had received clearance, the tenders have not yet been floated.Better facilities at the railway station and the rail yard are the other items on the agenda of the officials. Talks have been going on for years for making Chandigarh a world-class station. No steps have been taken in this direction. The proposal entails having facilities like a shopping mall, a food court as well as connectivity to the airport. The city residents have been demanding an afternoon Shatabdi to Delhi as over the weekends the two Shatabdi trains that ply run to packed capacity with a long waiting list.The Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link, the construction of which was started in 2000, is still incomplete. Due to the delay, the estimated budget has shot up four times. The first phase is Chandigarh-New Morinda link, which is 45 km, and was completed in 2006. The second phase is from New Morinda-Sahnewal stretch, which is 52 km, and the third phase is Sahnewal-Ludhiana portion which is 14 km.This year the only announcement in the rail budget for the city was increasing the frequency of train plying between Dibrugarh and Chandigarh as well as another between Chandigarh and Bandra from once a week to twice.In fact, the Duronto between Amritsar and Chandigarh that was started turned out to be a failure suffering from low occupancy. It has now been converted into a superfast train with stoppages at Ludhiana and Jalandhar and is getting a better response.

Old engine to be put near station entrance
A 100-year-old engine will be placed near the entrance of the railway station in the coming days. The work for construction of platform for placing the engine is being started. The engine, which is no longer in use, will be procured from Pathankot. Railway officials say it will be an added attraction at the station.