Just Rs. 1,000 for Chandigarh-Baddi, Yamunanagar line in railway budget.

IN A setback for the 2007 proposed two railway lines connecting Chandigarh-Baddi and Yamunanagar-Chandigarh through Naraingarh, Sadhura along with the proposal of new material modification of Dappar-Chandigarh railway track, merely Rs 1,000 each were outlay proposed for these two railway lines in the 2020-21 railway budget and not a single penny was reserved for the modification of the Dappar-Chandigarh Railway track.

The 2020-21 railway budget was introduced by Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. On Thursday, Northern Railways released the detailed figures of allocation of funds to its states including Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab etc. Merely Rs 1,000 will be spent in additional traffic facilities in Chandigarh, including stabling lines, end platform line at platform number 8.

No funds have been allocated for the establishment of the Modern Signalling Equipment Factory (MSEF) at the Chandigarh railway station. Merely Rs. 30,000 were outlay proposed for Railway Under Bridge between Kalka-Chandigarh railway track.

DRM (Ambala) Gurinder Mohan Singh, said, “Indeed, for the financial year 2020-21, there is not much for Chandigarh. The allocation of minimal rupees like Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 30,000 was shown for keeping these old projects alive. Chandigarh-Baddi, Yamunanagar-Chandigarh railway lines were proposed in around 2007 and at that time, budget of crores of rupees were sanctioned for these projects. The railway authorities do not release the allocated budget all of sudden while releasing the amount time to time. This time massive funds were allocated for other works in the rest of the parts of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, which fall in the Northern Railway.”

The proposed Chandigarh-Baddi railway line is 33.23km and Rs. 1540 crore had been sanctioned for it. The proposed Yamunanagar-Chandigarh railway line is 91 km and Rs. 8.67 crore was sanctioned for it. However, Rs. 1,071 crore was outlay proposed for railway lines including Panipat-Rohtak, Firozepur-Bathinda and Jakhal-Hissar Asthal Bohar-Rewari, Bathinda-Bhildi (excluding Degana- Rai Ka Bagh connectivity between Palwal and New Prithala in Haryana.

Similarly, Rs. 1,575 crore was outlay proposed for railway lines Firozepur-Bathinda and Jakhal-Hissar, Bathinda-Bhildi excluding Degana- Rai Ka Bagh in Punjab.

THE INDIAN EXPRESS