RailEnquiry

Jammu: The delay in the start of train service to Katra is hampering the up-gradation work of the Jammu Railway station. Neither the platforms nor the trains can be increased at the Jammu Tawi railway station till the train service reaches Katra.Train to Katra has been delayed by more than a year and the authorities are still not sure whether the July, 2013 deadline for the project can be met.Expansion of the Jammu railway station from three platforms to five has been rejected by the higher authorities, for which a proposal was sanctioned two years ago and funds were also released by the Union Railway Ministry.The only reason for rejecting the proposal was “when the train will go to Katra, three platforms will be sufficient for the Jammu Tawi railway station," said RN Meena, Divisional Traffic Manager (DTM), Jammu.He asaid the deadline may be extended as “the work on the a tunnel at Udhampur may take some more time,” he said.Meena admitted that the Jammu Tawi railway station does not have any off season as the trains from Jammu are always full of passengers. But the railways cannot increase the number of trains in Jammu as it has only three washing lines, and to increase the number of trains needs more washing lines. The railways are waiting for the Katra station to be functional as it has two washing lines."It takes more than six hours to check the train which needs to be parked in the washing line, if we increase the number of trains, we will have to increase the washing lines as well,” he said.“We have two washing lines at the Katra railway station, so it will be easy for us to maintain the extra number of trains when the Katra station starts funtioning,” he added.