NEW DELHI: Ahead of the upcoming assembly election in West Bengal, the railway ministry is all set to approve approximately Rs 440 crore fourth greenfield coaching terminal project at Dankuni near Kolkata.
Currently, there are three such terminals - Howrah, Kolkata and Sealdah - and these are already congested. The project may be announced in the next couple of weeks, sources said. The Eastern Railway has sent the proposal to the Railway Board. The project site is barely nearly 15 km from Howrah.
The announcement of this project is being seen as yet another attempt of the Centre to woo the voters in West Bengal where BJP is targeting to dethrone the Mamata Banerjee government.
According to the proposal, Eastern Railway has got three coaching terminals and all these are now saturated from pit line capacity, platform availability and stabling line point of view. Moreover, there is a limited number of platforms at Howrah and Sealdah station to deal with 24 coaches. Due to non-availability of railway land, there is no scope for further expansion of these terminals, sources said.
Dankuni is a suburban station under Howrah division of Eastern Railway, which has good connectivity with Kolkata by road and by rail. Officials said nearly 100 acre un-encroached railway land without infringing the existing infrastructure of the goods terminal. Sources said the project has good financial viability.
“This will be for developing a mega coaching terminal with all modern infrastructure and other necessary facilities,” said a source.
The project is also crucial considering that the Indian Railways is developing sectional capacity of the different sections of the golden quadrilateral and golden diagonals. The creation of new infrastructure will also meet the likely increased demand of mail-express trains from metro cities.