RAILWAY SAMACHAR

Trains to chug in to holy

town of Pushkar soon

Railway Board chairman says rail route work will be completed during this financial year

This news will elate pilgrims heading to Pushkar.

Chairman of Railway Board SS Khurana said that the holy town would be connected to rail route during 2010-11. He also expressed satisfaction over the performance of North Western Railways (NWR) in the past financial year, After visiting various railway stations and Ajmer division of NWR, Khurana addressed a press conference at the headquarters. He said, “Pushkar will be on the rail map. I am sure that the work will be over in this financial year itself.”

Asked about acquisition of one patch of land that is actually playing spoilsport for the opening of this rail route, Khurana said, “I think general manager (NWR) Vinay Mittal has already spoken to the state government on this issue. If needed, I am ready to talk on behalf of the Railway Board to sort things out.”

Khurana further said that with the completion of doubling of tracks from Jaipur to Bandikui this year, the problem of congestion of trains would be addressed. “After the completion of doubling, NWR can expect to increase the speed of trains on the Jaipur-Delhi route.”

As regards earnings of NWR in the 2009-10 fiscal, Khurana, said, “The approximate earnings during past financial year was around Rs2,990.22 crore that was 21% higher than figures of 2008-09.”

The chairman also made an inspection of Palace on Wheels train from Delhi to Jaipur.

About the performance of the train, he said, “I found that the running of the train is not up to the mark and it needs to be improved.”

Commenting on making Jaipur a world-class railway station, Khurana said, “I think first the feasibility report on this will be prepared and later, Jaipur will be developed as a world-class railway station on the module of public-private partnership.”

minor hurdles

Acquisition of a patch of land has been posing hurdles in the opening of this rail route

Khurana said the NWR has spoken with the Rajasthan government about the issue

Assured complete support for negotiations on land prices

Railways aims to complete the doubling of tracks from Jaipur to Bandikui this year

The work will help railways increase speed of trains running between Jaipur and New Delhi.