Railway Minister visits Ludhiana railway station

Ludhiana, February 20, 2013: A delegation of Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) met Pawan Kumar Bansal, Railway Minister here on Wednesday.

After the meeting, the Railway Minister physically visited the railway station to have personal assessment of the proposals mooted by the Chamber.

The problems of Ludhiana related to the railway were discussed in detail. 

PD Sharma, President of the Apex Chamber emphasised to implement certain proposals to ease the straining traffic problem of Ludhiana. He said the Ludhiana railway station is situated in the heart of the town.  Ludhiana is dependent on migrant labour mainly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.  If one person of such migrant labour has to catch some train dozen people accompany him.  With this shear number there is a lot of congestion caused in the city.

He said fortunately this migrant labour is concentrated on the suburbs like Focal Point etc.  This demands that some trains which usually run either for Bihar and UP or pass through these states should have no stoppage at Ludhiana station and instead should stop at Dhandari Kalan Railway Station. This station can be suitably upgraded. “The minister took serious note of this problem and assured immediate action”, said Sharma. 

Sharma also pointed out that at present the opening and exit at railway station is on one side only towards old city and there is lot of congestion.  As a temporary measure there is make shift opening towards Civil Line side.  This side can be developed as full-fledged entry and exit like New Delhi railway station.  There is lot of space for this and on this railway vacant land some old railway bungalows exist.  This space can be utilised for exit and entry and the residences so affected can be shifted to other place.  For this purpose some help of state government can be had in the great public interest. The Railways have their own residential colonies in the city and the displaced residences can be built there as multi-storey flats like other cities.

Sharma said the minister directed the Zonal Railway Manager, Ferozepur Division RN Goyal to give a detailed report of this.

It was also brought to the notice of the minister that the platforms of Ludhiana railway station have been built up as if in a tearing hurry without caring the traffic they have to handle.  This is unfortunate. The railways over bridges on the railway station are so narrow that no single person from either side can cross them safely. Accidents occur very often due to the extremely narrow width of the bridges.  These bridges needed to be broadened suitably.

The problems of old citizens were also discussed in detail. Old citizens find it very difficult to go upstairs to platforms particularly to platforms (No. 1 and 2).  Many trains stop on these two platforms. Moreover general population has a larger share of those who are inflicted with knee problems. So it is desired that escalators may be provided to facilitate old citizens and others on these platforms.  This facility is available on many leading railway stations. “The Minister assured action on this”, said Sharma, adding this facility is being provided immediately on platform No. 1.

Some proposals regarding over bridges were also discussed.  The progress of “Lakar Bridge” project is slow and the project is lingering for the last many years.  From the traffic point of view it can be viewed as most crucial project. “The minister asked the Zonal Manager, Firozepur Division to expedite “Lakar Bridge””, he said, adding RN Goyal appraised that work is in progress.

Other railway over bridges and under passes requiring urgent attention were also highlighted such as two Railway Bridges over Ferozepur Road to Doraha Southern bye- pass Express highway:  The roads of this express highway are almost complete and lot of work need to be done on these bridges.

SS Bhogal, Romesh Goel and YP Bajaj participated in the meeting.