Councillors during the MC general house meeting on budget at MC office in Sector 17 of Chandigarh on Friday. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh) A TOTAL of Rs 200 crore was allocated for the 33.23 km Chandigarh-Baddi rail link in the Union Budget of 2021-22, Rs 10 crore was allocated for construction of two railway over-bridges (ROBs) at Chandigarh-Kalka road and Ambala-Kalka-4 lane road overbridge. Moreover, Rs 5 crore were allocated for the renewal of around 13 km stretch of Kalka-Shimla narrow gauge track renewals.
Interestingly, Rs 1 crore was allocated for the construction of at least 64 seats for the TTE, railway security personnel in all toy trains ply between Kalka and Shimla narrow gauge, 90 km railway track. Till now, there are no specific seats for TTE, railway security guards in these trains.
Besides this, Rs 1 crore was allocated for the extension of broad gauge washing line towards diesel shed end by 100 mts at Kalka railway station. The 90 km Kalka-Shimla railway track is one of the UNESCO protected sites.
Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala, Gurinder Mohan Singh, said, “We received the exact break up of budget allocated for our division today.
The budget was presented on February 1. The exact break-up of the budget takes time. With an allocation of Rs 200 crore for the proposed Chandigarh-Baddi rail link, the work will gain speed. The budget was also allocated for different railway lines including doubling of railway tracks, constructions of ROB and RUB in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.”
A total of Rs 1,201 crore was allocated for infrastructure projects and safety works in Haryana. Railway officials maintained that the allocated budget is at least 281 per cent more than the average of 2009-14, in which Rs 315 crore per year was allocated.
Meanwhile, Rs 770 crore was allocated for the development of railway infrastructure and safety works in the state of Himachal.
For railway-related projects in Punjab, Rs 2,262 crore was allocated, which is 905 per cent more than the average budget of 2009-14, when Rs 225 crore was allocated per year.
Sources said Rs 164 crore was allocated for a bypass line of Rohtak-Gohana-Panipat, Rs 25.76 crore was allocated for the 88.9km long railway track between Jind and Sonipat, Rs 124.19 crore was allocated for the 68.8km long Rohtak-Meham-Hansi railway track, Rs 9 crore was allocated for the upgradation of passenger amenities at Amritsar, Haridwar, Rae Bareli, Varanasi, Kurukshetra and Delhi Safdarjung, which will be developed in the association with Ministry of Tourism.