Friday, June 1, 2012

ABOHAR-FAZILKA RAIL LINK : July 15 fresh deadline to open the track

Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, May 30
After much hue and cry and various public complaints to railway department, the Chairman of Railway Board has flashed a fresh deadline to the Northern Railway authorities to open the Fazilka-Abohar rail track by July 15.

As per the information obtained by scholar retired Professor of IIT Roorkee Dr Bhupinder Singh from Rajesh Aggarwal, Director, Research Design and Standard Orgnisation (RDSO) Ministry of Railways, Lucknow, the Chairman Railway Board has given some fresh targets to the Northern Railway to complete the process of running train in a phased manner till July 15.

As per the directions of the chairman, the recruitment and postings of all the requisite staff comprising 172 employees to be deployed on this track should be completed by June 15, 2012.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety would finally inspect the track on the first week of July positively, after deployment of the staff on five railway stations and 27 manned level railway crossings, track and signalling maintenance. The repair of track and technical problem if any would be removed by June 15. 

As per the target, the track would be thrown open on July 15.

"Whether which centre or the state government representative would inaugurate the track is yet to be decided," said Divisional Rail Manager, Ferozepur Division, N K Goyal, while interacting with the members of deputation of Northern India Passengers Samiti and Beopar Mandal who called on him in his office on Tuesday evening.

"The department has already recruited 36 out of total requirement of 172 employees, including station masters and assistant station masters. The remaining staff shall be available by June 15. The trial run of the train would be conducted on June 28 in which he and other senior officials of the department would make a ride," said Goyal.

The members reiterated their resolve to initiate "rail roko" agitation from July 1, if a train on Fazilka-Abohar track is not introduced by June 30.

The members of the deputation Satish Dhingra and Shakti Singh informed that they have also demanded from the DRM to raise the level of platform number 1 for the convenience of the passengers and revive washing line at Fazilka railway station.

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