Proposed in 2001, rail underpass in Gurdaspur set to be reality soon

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, March 2

After a torturous two-decade-long wait, Gurdaspur will finally have an underpass on the busy Gurdaspur-Mukerian rail crossing with the Punjab government releasing Rs 21.72 crore for the completion of the much-needed project. In what is being termed as a rare occurrence, the state government has chipped in with a 100 per cent grant. Under normal circumstances, state governments and the Railways share the costs.

This was a long pending demand of locals as serpentine queues of vehicles could be witnessed every time the crossing is closed. The track caters to several goods and passenger trains. The crossing remained shut for long periods of time throwing the city’s economy in a chaos.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal confirmed that “the Railways have been kept out of the loop to ensure the venture faced no bureaucratic hassles and also to hasten the process.”

“A few weeks ago, I had met the CM Capt Amarinder Singh and had apprised him of the situation. The state PWD will be undertaking the construction soon,” said local MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra.

In 2017 then MP Sunil Jakhar, too, had promised to get the venture completed. He was in touch with the Railways officials but the project went into a limbo following his loss in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Pahra added that earlier there was a proposal to construct an overbridge. “Building an overbridge would have meant displacing hundreds of shopkeepers who have their businesses on the Tibri road. Now, not even a single business will be displaced. The project will be completed within six months,” he said.

“What acted as a catalyst was the fact that the density of traffic had increased manifold in the last 10-15 years. The queues were getting longer with every passing day,” said Baljit Singh Pahra, a newly elected municipal councillor. Incidentally, he is also an aggrieved commuter because he uses this road to reach his native village from the city.

It was in 2001 that the proposal to construct either an underpass or an overbridge was taken up. On numerous occasions several politicians did rake up the issue but every time things got derailed due to one reason or the other. Residents claim that it is now, after a long gap of 20 years, that they can heave a sigh of relief.

“The venture is considered to be important from the security angle too as this is the stretch of road normally used by Army personnel commuting to the city from Tibri cantonment. Now everything has been sorted out,” said Rajesh Mahajan, a shopkeeper.