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Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 12
The state government has finally started the land acquisition process for the 25.47-km Ferozepur-Patti rail link project that has been in limbo since 2013.
The rail link will reduce the distance between Ferozepur and Amritsar from 118 km to 86 km. The distance between Amritsar and Mumbai will be shortened by 240 km, Jammu and Mumbai by 267 km.
Rajya Sabha MP Shwet Malik, who is member of the Parliamentary Committee for the Railways, said the rail link would curtail the five-hour journey between Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra on this line.
He said the state government directed the Deputy Commissioners of Tarn Taran and Ferozepur districts to acquire land for the Railways after talking to owners of the land.
Malik said the estimate suggested that the proposed Amritsar Delhi Kolkata Industrial Corridor (ADKIC) would require investment of Rs 50,000 crore.
On the other hand, this railway stretch would cost Rs 200 crore. The stretch needs two bridges to be built over Sutlej and Beas rivers.
About 20,000 containers of Basmati rice worth Rs 6,000 crore were exported from Amritsar to Gujarat’s Kandla port, he said, adding that many more items were exported from the region though ports of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Though the rail link was approved by the then Railway Minister, Pawan Kumar Bansal, in the Rail Budget of 2013, the work did not begin for want of land.
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