PMO clears laying of diversion rail tracks under Dhanbad div

Shashank Shekhar

Dhanbad ( Jharkhand) : Fearing accident due to raging underground fire threatening to spread over to Dhanbad—Chandrapura  rail route through which several major  trains including Rajdhanai and Shatabadi, the Prime minister office (PMO) has cleared laying of new diversion rail tracks and entire shifting programme at a cost of over Rs 4,000 crore. More than 200 km of new rail lines will be laid which will take  about 7 years if the work starts  immediately, railway source informed.

The decision  for diversion  of rail tracks and laying of new rail line was finally taken under leadership of Nripnedra Mishra, principal secretary, PMO, after  several rounds of  high level meetings held earlier between Railways, Coal India Limited, Director General of Mines Safety (DGMS)and Jharkhand state government failed  to reach any conclusion after which the  matter was referred to the PMO.

Divisional Railways Manager (DRM), Dhanbad,M K Akhauri said that the  PMO has given green signal for  laying of new track  and as RITES has prepared the blue print of the project, the work on this project will very soon . “The laying of tracks will definitely help in catering better  services to passengers and will also help in fast transportation of goods on goods trains,” said the DRM.

The problem in laying of new tracks  cropped up after Railways asked BCCL ( Coal India Limited)  to bear the expenses of laying of new rail lines as  BCCL would be the bigger gainer while railways were being forced to shift the track due to underground fire which was refused by the CIL. Railway sources informed that on the advise of PMO, Rail India Technical and Economic service (RITES) has prepared its full report on shifting and laying  of diversion rail routes which  has been handed over to DGMS for its final approval which must reach PMO office before June 5, 2017,  so that go ahead signal is given immediately.

As per information  received from railways, RITES  has given proposal to shift four rail routes on which presently several mail trains including Rajdhanai and Shatabadi run besides more than two dozen goods trains.

The final decision  in this regard was taken  under the chairmanship of Nripendra Mishra in New Delhi in which Coal secretary Sushil Kumar, Jharkhand chief secretary Rajbala Verma, DGMS P K Sarkar besides senior railway board members were present.

As per proposal 13 new rail lines to ferry coal and other goods will be laid while several new goods loading points will also be constructed. The major route Gomoh—Mahuda- Santhaldih  on which even Rajdhani and Shatabadi run will pass through Telgaria—Chas- Benidih stations  while a parallel rail line on Dhanbad –Chadrapura rail route will be laid through Bhuli—Matari up to  Chandrapura.

As per  railways sources, more than one dozen railway stations including  Kusunda, Sijua, Katras, Angarpathra, Phularitand, Kharkhari,Baansjora, Bhaga, Bhaura,  Loyabad besides  several rail halts  will cease to exist which fall  in underground fire zone between Dhanbad and Chandrapura route.

Its may be mentioned here that  the distance between Dhanbad –Chadrapura rail route  is 34 km on which  58 mail, express and passenger trains move via Dhanbad—Kusunda, Bansuria –Bansjora—Sijua—Angarpathra—Katrasgarh—Tetulia—Sonardih—Tundu—Bodra-Phulwatand-Jamuni—Jaminiatand—Devnagar and Chandrapura.