Doraha-Neelon Railway Crossing ROB approved, 100% to be funded by Railways: MP Arora

Ludhiana, March 7, 2024: Finally, approval has been given to construct Road Over Bridge (ROB) at Level Crossing (LC)-164A, on Doraha-Neelon highway.

This has been made possible with concrete efforts made by MP (Rajya Sabha) from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora who has been taking up this matter with the Railways, Punjab Government, and the local administration. He has been regularly monitoring the progress of this proposal at every level. 

Expressing his happiness over approval given to the proposal, Arora said he has been apprised by DRM Railways Ambala Division Mandeep Singh Bhatia c that proposal for 4 lane ROB in lieu of LC-164A, near Doraha was shortlisted in Indian Railways Projects Sanctions and Management (IRPSM) in the year 2023-24 and sanctioned by Railway Board on March 1, 2024. He said the project will cost Rs.70.56 crore to the Railways.

Initially, a proposal was made to construct ROB at LC-164A in the year 2011. In the year 2016, commercial operation date (COD) was given to a private construction company. Later, the company got approved design for the project under which a single track was to be constructed. But later a proposal came to construct double track. On this, the private construction company claimed that cost of construction will increase due to increase in length of span. Later, this proposal went into cold storage and the contract of construction company was terminated on August 5, 2021. 

Now, ROB is to be constructed under an Umbrella Scheme by the Railways at LC-164A. Arora said, “I have been apprised by the authorities concerned that the work will commence shortly”. He said the project after its completion will provide a great relief to commuters on the Doraha-Neelon stretch. Presently, commuters on this stretch are suffering a lot because of heavy rail traffic on the Ambala-Ludhiana section because most of the time railway crossing at LC-164A remains closed for vehicular traffic.