Mohali-Rajpura BG link will be taken up soon, will enhance the connectivity of state capital: Ravneet Singh Bittu MOS Railways and Food Processing

Ludhiana, June 16, 2024: Mohali-Rajpura broad-gauge link would be taken up soon with the Union Railway minister Ashwani Vaishnav. The link will join the state capital with the state in the shortest link on the New Delhi Amritsar main line at Sarai Banjara. 

Addressing the media in Ludhiana today Ravneet Singh Bittu, Minister of state for Railways and Food Processing Industries said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ashwani Vaishnav Railway minister have given Punjab a major share in the railways. They both have very much love and affection with Punjab.  The revised DPR on Mohali – Rajpura broad-gauge link would be started at the earliest. The link is long pending demand of the Punjabis and it will be shorter by 55 Km from the present route of Rajpura Ambala and even very short from Mohali Morinda link. The DPR of this link was earlier prepared in 2016-17 with project cost of 312.53 Crore. As the rate of return was negative 5%, consent was asked from the Govt of Punjab for cost sharing and providing land free of cost for this new line project vide Railways Boards DO dated 24-11-16 to the Chief secretary Govt of Punjab. As now almost eight years have passed and inspite of repeated reminders there is no response from the Govt of Punjab, new DPR or revised DPR will be done. The revised DPR will be shared with the Punjab Government for further necessary action. 

Giving further details about the link, Bittu said that this section length would be 38.880Km with total area to be covered in three districts ( SAS Nagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala ) will be 43.192 Hectares. 
Bittu said that a total of 55 Km of new line is targeted in the current financial year for the Ludhiana – Mullanpur doubling (Baddowal Ludhiana section), Ludhiana Kila Raipur doubling (Ludhiana Kila Raipur Section) and Nangal Dam Talwara Mukerian New Line with cost of approx. 2400 Crores. 

Adding on to this the minister said that 30 stations in Punjab are being redeveloped under Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. These stations are Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Nangal Dam, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, Bathinda, Mansa, Kotkapura, Moga, Sirhind, Abohar, Fazilka, Firozpur Cantt, Mukatsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot Cantt, Pathankot city, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara, Jalandhar Cantt, Jalandhar city, Phillaur, Beas, Kapurthala, Dhandari kalan, Ludhiana, Patiala, Dhuri, Malerkotla and Sangrur. Out of these, only five stations namely, Amritsar, Beas, Bathinda, Jalandhar city and Pathankot cantt are in the master planning phase rest the work is in progress at 25 stations with total cost of 1103.27 Crores. Under this scheme the stations will be developed with master plan with well designed, horizon of 40 – 60 years. The other elements of the Amrit Bharat station scheme are improved station building, creation of city center, spacious roof plaza with passenger amenities and retail spaces, cafeterias, recreational facilities, integration of both sides of city, smooth traffic flows with adequate parking facilities, high level platforms, improved surfaces and platform covers, facilities for Divyaangjan, comfortable illumination, signages acoustics, lifts/ escalators, CCTV and promotion of local products under One station One product scheme. 

On reaching the circuit house in Ludhiana Guard of honour was given to the MoS by contingent of the district police.  After that he visited the BJP office where he met the workers and the district leadership.