Indore : It seems the gauge conversion work at Platform no. 1 of the city railway station won’t be over before the Simhasta Mela as General Manager (GM) of Western Railway (WR) GC Agrawal on Friday extended the deadline for the third time till March 31.
Agrawal was talking to media persons after his meeting with the Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Ratlam Division held at Sayaji Hotel on Friday.
He told the public representatives that the platform work would likely to be completed by March 31.
It may be recalled that on his previous visits to the railway station and while talking to media persons, he had told that the platform work would be over by March 15 and during his October 14, 2015 visit, Agrawal had promised to complete work at platform no. 1 and other platforms by February-end. He was confident that Indore-Mhow gauge conversion work would also be completed by that time and trains movements would begin thereafter.
When asked about delay in projects sanctioned by the UPA government like Indore-Dahod and Dhar-Chhota Udaipur, the GM said that these projects were delayed due to certain factors.
The GM said that over 100 special trains will run on ‘Shahi Snan’ days for the holy city Ujjain.
Consensus on MR-4 reached
The GM further said that a consensus was reached between the IDA and the railways and the latter will return land of similar size it wants to take from the IDA.
IDA Chairman Shankar Lalwani said that officers of the IDA met DRM Manoj Sharma at Laxmibai Nagar and informed him that 21 sq meter land was kept reserved for railways at Chhota Banganga.
The DRM and the GM will formally give approval to the IDA proposal in 8 days.
Substandard construction
On the question of substandard work at Laxmibai Nagar, the GM said: “We conducted internal inquiry and as per the findings, the departmental action would be taken against them.
Talking about his the meeting with the MPs, he said that the MPs gave him suggestions about various railway facilities for Simhasta Fair. Their emphasis was on increasing number of coaches in trains.
Meeting with MPs
The meeting was presided over by Mandsaur MP Sudhir Gupta and six MPs attended the meeting. They were Alok Sanjar from Bhopal, Kantilal Bhuria from Ratlam, Manohar Utwal from Dewas, Savitri Thakur from Dhar and Subhash Patel. Local MP and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was represented by railway affairs experts Nagesh Namjoshi and Jagmohan Verma.
The GM informed the MPs about railways’ preparations for Simhasta fair.
Start Fatehabad-Ujjain GC work
After the meeting, Namjoshi requested the GM to start gauge conversion work of Fatehabad-Ujjain route. He also demanded 3 new trains from the city to Puri, Assam, and New Delhi.
