If you are travelling by rail from an outstation to Jammu, on coming close to Jammu railway station you will find not more than a hundred yards from the rail line, huge oil tanks of Oil companies standing rows over a vast area of several kanals of land. The first question that comes to one’s mind is how come this huge reservoir of combustible stuff has been set up so close to the railway line? It could be a source of unimaginable disaster if a miscreant tried to cook up some conspiracy. Of course, some years back, a stray blast did take place near one of the huge oil tanks but fortunately there was no damage. This depot was set up in early sixties. At that time the area where it is located, viz. railway station was desolate and uninhabited. There was no habitation or civil population settled around. Then development took place gradually and by now the entire locale has become a posh area with housing colonies and several government and private organizational headquarters and establishments mushrooming there. As such, there is the second thinking that presence of combustible stuff so close to the inhabited colonies and the railway station was totally undesirable and a security risk. Consequently, it was decided that the depot should be shifted to a place far away from the habited areas of the city. Keeping in mind that Jammu was expanding at rapid speed, the policy planners decided to shift the depot to village Bara near Samba. A decision was taken and the revenue and other concerned authorities were asked to undertake the preliminaries of the project worth over 100 crore rupees.
Now, an oil depot has got to have access to railway line because bulk of oil is carried by railway tankers and disgorged in the tankers at the depot. Revenue Department was set on the job and 40 acres of land was identified in village Bara. Notification of acquiring the identified land was also issued but before payment of the cost of land could be made to the landowners the Oil Corporation was told by the Railway authorities that the depot could be shifted only after clearance from the Railways was obtained. The railways have their norms of giving the clearance as it has to meet certain norms and criterion…
Eight months have passed by and the Railway authorities have not given clearance to the shifting of the depot. The reason of inordinate delay is best known to them. On the other hand land owners are clamouring, and rightly so, for the compensation of the land which the IOC has withheld for want of clearance by the railways. This is a strange situation in which the organizations want to do things at their leisure forgetting that the landowners are suffering. Their land has been acquired but compensation has not been paid. How are they supposed to survive?
We find that the Oil Corporation is prepared to go to the length of making payment to the owners of land but it is not sure whether the Railways will give feasibility report or not. If it does not give a positive report then how the money given by way of compensation should be recovered? The farmers and owners are not in a position to pay back the money of compensation.
We find that the onus of delaying the project falls on the shoulders of the Railways. One fails to understand the reason of procrastinating the issue for eight months and sill remain undecided whether it would give clearance or not. We do understand that there are technicalities and most importantly, some unavoidable technical safeguards have to be taken into account before the feasibility report is submitted. But the Railways have also to understand that from security point of view and the recent attack on military post in Samba, it is of highest priority to shift the oil depot to a place away from proximities of inhabited localities.
From intelligence reports we can deduce that the terrorists usually want to target commercial, business and marketing centers. The oil depot in Jammu so blatantly exposed to the naked eye can turn into a major source of crisis. Before that happens, we beseech the Railways Ministry and the Oil Corporation to sit down and sort out the problem of shifting of the oil depot. Revenue department and the district authorities in Samba need to visualize the criticality of the situation. Delay in railways issuing feasibility certificate is least expected. But this does not mean that things have to be done in a huff. Railways Ministry should complete all tests and formalities, full infrastructural under-ground as well as over-ground systems have to be provided and then alone can a green signal be given to go ahead. The entire project and more importantly payment of compensation to stakeholders remain withheld. This is what the Railways have to understand. In fact before everything else and soon after the identification of the new site, the railways should have begun their home work on the feasibility issue. Anyway, there is no use making long litany of accusations. Let the Railways issue feasibility certificate now and it will pave the way for the shifting of the depot from Jammu railway station to Samba.
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