Northern Railways awaits forest clearance to complete construction of Rs 419 crore project

New delhi: Following completion of construction work of 5th-6th line between New Delhi-Tilak bridge last year, the Northern Railway intends to start the construction work of 3rd & 4th line between Tilak Bridge and Anand Vihar Stations of Northern Railway in order to increase the line capacity of Delhi-Howrah route. It will allow running of more number of trains with improved infrastructure.

This 9.77 kms section is a bottleneck at present having only two tracks whereas adjoining sections have multiple tracks — six tracks between New Delhi and Tilak Bridge stations and four tracks between Anand Vihar and Sahibabad stations.

However, the project is stuck due to pending forest clearances with respect to cutting of approximately 4,400 trees in railway land (including 600 trees proposed for transplantation) in Delhi at a time when there is urgent need to promote public transport in view of rising pollution level.

The ambitious project sanctioned at Rs 419 crore will bridge Yamuna river (near Bhairon Marg), construction of which was already cleared by the Yamuna Standing Committee in October last year. Work on bridges and Anand Vihar Station is in full swing and the project has incurred an expenditure of almost Rs 115 crore

till now.

The project will serve as a means to augment movement of daily passengers through EMU trains from adjoining suburbs of Uttar Pradesh (Ghaziabad, Sahibabad, etc) and would contribute in reduction of PM 2.5 & 10.0.

It is estimated that around 5,875 passengers would be carried daily by additional 10 pairs of mail/express/EMU trains which would generate earnings of around Rs 1 crore per day. The savings due to detention to coaching trains is expected to be around Rs 1.21 crore per day while that of goods trains is Rs 1 crore. Also, average detention of 8 minutes per coaching train would be eliminated, thereby, reducing travel time and saving fuel cost.