Union Minister of Railways announced new railway terminal for Gurugram

Chandigarh, April 4, 2017: Union Minister of Railways, Mr Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu today announced that a new railway terminal equipped with world-class facilities would be established in Gurugram to reduce the mounting pressure on the Delhi terminal due to the increase in number of trains coming to the national capital from different parts of the country. The work on this project would soon be started. Besides, the Rohtak railway station would be developed as a model station in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. The Union Minister was speaking at function organised by Northern Railways at Rohtak today. The Union Minister, in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal, dedicated newly-electrified rail section between Rohtak and Jind to the nation. He also flagged off new DEMU train between Jind and Sonipat through video conference, for the convenience of rail passengers by providing intercity connectivity. Extending greetings to the people on the occasion of Ram Navami, Mr Prabhu said that tender for new Rohtak-Meham-Hansi railway line would be finalised in August this year. This work would be completed by the end of December, 2019. Apart from this, the proposed Rail Coach Factory in district Sonipat would be developed on PPP mode. The work on this project would be started at the earliest. He said that so far, electrification work has been completed on about 42 per cent of the total rail network in the state. This figure would be doubled in the next five years as a plan has already been started in this direction. He said that Railways would save Rs 41,000 crore in coming 10 years by installing solar power plants, wind power plant and LED lights. With a view to promote greenery, five crore saplings are also being planted by the railways, he added. He said that the Indian Railways would continue its efforts to extend greater connectivity in the State. Investment in railways in the country has been increased to Rs 3.5 lakh crore during the last two-and-a-half years. The present Union government has increased the annual share of Haryana in Rail Budget to Rs 1,247 crore for 2017-18, whereas this share was Rs 314 crore from 2009 to 2014. Survey work on 55-km Yamunanagar-Jagadhari-Kurukshetra-Ladwa link and 65 km on Kaithal-Patiala link has been approved in 2017-18. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Lal thanked the Union Railways Minister for dedicating the new rail projects to the people. He said that work on Elevated Railway Line on the Rohtak-Gohana stretch had already been started which would help in decongesting Rohtak city. This is the first-ever elevated rail track of Indian Railways being built for facilitating smoother road traffic in densely-populated city areas. The work on this project would soon be completed. He said that provision of Rs 100 crore had been made in current year budget estimates for joint venture projects to be undertaken with Railways. The government had also decided to construct Railway Over Bridges (RoBs) and Railway Under Bridges (RuBs) on all unmanned level crossings in the state. As many as 24 RuBs and RoBs have already been constructed by the present government and 21 are under construction. Finance Minister, Capt. Abhimanyu, lauded the Union Railways Minister for his initiative for eliminating the age-old system of separate budget presentation for Railways, and said that it was a matter of great pride that Mr Prabhu had decided to do away with this practice started by the British. Now, the Union Railways Minister is making concerted efforts to accelerate the pace of development of rail infrastructure in the country. A joint venture of special purpose vehicle has been made between Railways and State Government for rapid implementation of various rails projects in the state. He said that Haryana government would provide funds of more than its share to develop Rohtak railway station as a model station. Haryana Health Minister, Mr. Anil Vij, Minister of State for Cooperation, Mr. Manish Kumar Grover, Member of Parliament, Mr. Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Member of Parliament, Mr. Deepender Singh Hooda, Mayor, Municipal Corporation Rohtak, Mrs. Renu Dabla and General Manager, Northern Railways, Mr. RK Kulshrestha also spoke on this occasion. Those present on the occasion included Member of Parliament, Mr. Shadi Lal Batra, MLA, Mr. Naresh Kaushik, District BJP President, Mr. Ajay Bansal and other officers of Railways and District Administration.