LUDHIANA, Mar 1 : Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu accused the Punjab government on Saturday of delaying the construction of a crucial railway overbridge at the Doraha-Sahnewal main line here.
If nothing substantial is done about the ROB by the Punjab government in the coming days, “we will be forced to launch an agitation”, he said.
Bittu visited the site of the proposed railway overbridge on Saturday and listened to commuters about the hardships they face on the road.
“Daily, 190 trains pass from this area and more than 3,000 vehicles cross the tracks,” the Union minister said.
The overbridge is to be built by the railways with an outlay Rs 70.56 crore but the state government is not granting a no-objection certificate to the project, he alleged.
“PWD, Punjab officials are not signing the drawings. It is mandatory for them to sign as the approach of the ROB will generate and end in their jurisdiction. The railways has already given them in writing that the maintenance and upkeep of the service roads will be taken care of by the railways once the construction starts,” Bittu said.
He said the railway crossing is located between the Doraha and Sahnewal stations on the Ambala-Ludhiana section in the Northern Railway’s Ambala division.
In the census of July 2022, the train vehicular unit was around six lakh and hence, the ROB was proposed.
The railways wrote letters to the state public works department (PWD) in September last year for granting the NOC and sharing the available data on the Doraha ROB.
In November 2024, the PWD issued an NOC to the railways but some of the terms and conditions of the document like taking over the responsibility of court cases or arbitration proceedings from the previous agency were not acceptable to the Northern Railway.
A meeting was held in Chandigarh between railway representatives and Ravi Bhagat, Secretary, PWD, last month to resolve the issue regarding the conditional NOC granted by the department.
It was decided that the Punjab government will relook into the legal aspect of the issue. (PTI)
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