Region gains from Assam trains

rail budget skips mention of north bengal and DHR

The New Jalpaiguri station through which 50-60 trains pass everyday Siliguri, Feb 14 : The interim railway budget may have missed out on north Bengal, but people in this part of the state can reap some benefits out of it, only because of the region’s connectivity to Assam and the Northeast. In his budget speech, Lalu Prasad made only two announcements that are directly related to the region — the doubling of rail tracks on the Katwa-Farakka stretch and extension of the 5761/5762 Ranchi-Alipurduar Express to Guwahati. “Despite being an important section in the Indian railway network with a large passenger load, no new trains were announced from New Jalpaiguri to Calcutta, which has been a long-standing demand of the people here,” said Sujit Roy, a resident of Siliguri said. Some people will, however, benefit from the three new weekly trains announced for Assam. These include the Dibrugarh Town-Chandigarh Express, New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express via Bhagalpur and the New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express via Muzaffarpur. The increase in the frequency of the 2423/2424 New Delhi-Guwahati/Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express from five days to six a week will help people who frequent the national capital from the region. The existing Rajdhani Express runs on two routes on alternative days. These are Barauni-Patna-Mughal Sarai-Allahabad-Kanpur and Barauni-Hajipur-Chapra-Balia-Varanasi-Lucknow-Barailli-Moradabad. Residents here are disgruntled that no funds have been allocated for development of railway infrastructure in the region. “Considering the passenger and freight movement, it was important that funds for improvement of stations, cargo terminals and allied facilities should have been sanctioned. Nothing however came into our hands in this budget,” said Ramesh Jaiswal, a businessman who obtains his regular supplies from Delhi and other north Indian states. A section has, however, welcomed the introduction of three new Delhi-bound trains but wished more trains to south India. “People residing in this part of the country need more south India-bound trains. If we consider the importance of New Jalpaiguri, Guwahati and Calcutta and the distance among them, they should have been included in a feasibility study to run bullet trains. If this study can be done for the Howrah-Haldia, it could have been done for this region too,” said Nitin Thapa, a youth. There was, however, a mixed reaction among railway employees. “We welcome the rail budget and introduction of new train services in the region but simultaneously feel that the ministry should contemplate increasing the manpower,” Sanjoy Dutta, a member of the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen, a Congress backed employees’ union. “New trains means increase in workload of employees for which it is important that recruitments are made in different grades to strike a balance.” A senior official of the Northeast Frontier Railways, however, felt the current infrastructure was adequate for handling new trains. “But definitely there is scope for improvement,” he said. “We also expect some more announcements when the budget is tabled after the elections. Stations like New Jalpaiguri need funds for development.” The railway minister seems to have forgotten the two major toy train services in the country: one that runs in Darjeeling (Darjeeling Himalayan Railway) and other in Shimla. Both are heritage sites declared by the Unesco.