Railways to extend its network not only to Ladakh and Tripura, but also to Nepal & Bangladesh.
China’s rapid build-up of infrastructure and railway network across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in neighbouring countries has finally forced the railway ministry to extend its network not only to remote areas of Ladakh and Tripura, but also to neighbouring countries, Nepal and Bangladesh, to put up a matching response.
Presenting the rail budget in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, railway minister Dinish Trivedi emphasised the need for “railway preparedness” to move men and machine to border areas.
Specifically mentioning the projects in the northeast region and Jammu and Kashmir, the minister asked for liberal budgetary support in view of the geo-political situation arising along the borders due to rail networks built by neighbouring countries.
Announcing completion of an 11km-long tunnel through the Pir Panjal mountain range to provide connectivity to the Kashmir Valley, Trivedi said the railways has referred host of such other projects to the Planning Commission for appraisal.
He further announced providing rail connectivity to neighbouring countries. The ministry had taken up two projects — Jogbhani-Biratnagar new line and Jayanagar-Bijalpur-Bardibas — to provide connectivity to Nepal last year. This year, the minister has proposed to take up a project to connect Agartala with Akhaura in Bangladesh. “This rail link will not only improve bilateral ties but will also help in establishing connectivity with inaccessible areas in the northeast as the journey will be from Kolkata to Tripura via Bangladesh,” he said.
The most ambitious project mentioned in the budget is the 497-km Bilaspur-Manali-Leh rail link stretching from Himachal Pradesh to the remotest parts of Jammu and Kashmir. The link will not only neutralize China’s strategic advantage in the region, but will also provide an all-weather link to the soldiers stationed at the Siachen base camp.
The railway ministry has submitted the proposal to the Planning Commission early January detailing a 10-year construction timeframe at a cost of Rs. 22,500 crore.
China has completed its 3,900-km Beijing-Lhasa rail link and is proposing to build another 5,000 km of rail link to provide connectivity in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). It has also proposed to build a rail network in Nepal and develop Lumbni, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha.
Meanwhile, the ministry has also put aside views of experts like Metro man E Sreedharan and decided to go ahead with the Katra-Qazigund project in Jammu and Kashmir at a cost of Rs 19,500 crore to connect Kashmir with the rest of India.
Back in 2008, the railway ministry had cancelled work on this stretch of the rail line after tunnels caved in because of “faulty” alignments and geological instabilities. Thought an expert panel led by railway board chairman N Ravindra revived it a year later, the government kept it in cold storage for the past two-and-a-half years because of advice by experts like Sreedharan.
The project is part of a 345-km long railway line railway line started back in 1983 but remains incomplete missing several deadlines because of its passage through inhospitable terrain which was full of geological pitfalls.
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