RailEnquiry

Railway safety body yet to give clearance.There may be further delay before the Chandigarh-Ludhiana rail link becomes operational as the Railways Safety Commission is yet to give its clearance for the project. The commission is yet to even finalise a date for inspection of the track, only after which, can it give the green signal for passenger trains to ply on this route.Work on the rail link, however, has been completed. The project was approved in 1997-98 and construction began in 2000. The much hyped rail link was expected to be open by March 31, this year." "It is after the inspection is conducted (by the Railways Safety Commission), clearance would be given. We are awaiting the date for inspection by the safety commission," said Divisional Railways Manager, Ambala Division, P K Sanghi.Officials state that once the inspection is conducted, the track could be opened the very next day or in a couple of days depending on the views of the members of the commission.Once the rail link is given a green signal, several trains are expected to use this route. The train between Chandigarh and Amritsar would be shifted on this track.Apart from the Superfast Express between the two cities, an additional train is proposed to be started.The rail link would reduce half an hour to 45 minutes from the time of the journey at present.Work on the link had picked up pace after Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal took over as the Union Minister for Railways. Over the past three months, construction of the portions that were remaining was completed.The Railways conducted locomotive trial once over the portion that was recently completed and then again over the whole track. Following this, in February this year, a goods train was also plied on the track.The 112 km stretch has been constructed in three phases. The first phase between Chandigarh and Morinda was completed in September 2006 and opened for traffic. Phase-II which involved construction of third line from Sahnewal to Ludhiana on a 17 km stretch, was opened for traffic in November 2012. In February this year the remaining portion was completed.