223 full-grown trees to face axe for rly station upgrade

Tribune News Service

Nitin jain

Ludhiana, March 20

In what appears to be a big blow to the environment that will further reduce the already depleting green cover and supplement the rising pollution levels in the industrial hub, as many as 223 full-grown trees will be axed to pave way for the major upgrade of the Ludhiana railway station, the Northern Railway has confirmed.

Execution

Work to cut 223 full-grown trees in progress

Challenges

• Relocation of existing railway station building, 130 staff quarters, officers’ rest house and railway hospital
• Keeping old utilities functional during construction and traffic blockades

MP’s push

Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana Sanjeev Arora, who had been raising the demand inside and outside Parliament for long, had recently met Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to press for the redevelopment and upgrade of the city railway station. It was only after this meeting that the work on the ambitious project took off. Arora had demanded major infrastructure uplift and revamp of the junction while highlighting its poor state.

Project entails host of facilities: NR GM

The project, which was awarded on EPC mode to a local firm on December 19 last, entails a host of new facilities and upgrade of existing services to give a modern look to the railway station. — Ashutosh Gangal, GM, Northern Railway

An ambitious project with an outlay of Rs 528.95 crore and completion deadline of August 2, 2025, has been put to work for giving a new and modern look to the British era’s biggest junction in the Ferozepur Railway Division, officials have stated.

A senior functionary of the Northern Railway told The Tribune here on Monday that permission for cutting the 223 trees, which were coming in way of the railway station upgrade plan, had been obtained from the competent authorities and the work to axe the trees was in progress.

Since it will be the first major revamp of the railway station established way back in 1860, several challenges were also being faced to accomplish the task.

Among the major challenges under the project were relocation of existing buildings and facilities, keeping old utilities functional during the ongoing construction work and imposing of traffic blockades.

The relocation involved the existing railway station building, 130 staff quarters, officers’ rest house and a railway hospital.

The old utilities that had to be kept functional during construction activities included corroded water pipelines, supply and transmission cables and sewage lines.

The traffic blocks will include platform blocks for the foundation work and line blocks for launching of girders.

Following the award of the work on December 19 last, the relocation work of staff quarters and hospital was underway and will be finished by the end of this month while the temporary relocation of the main station building will be completed by May.

The construction of concourse and through roof will start in July while the hospital and officers’ rest house will be constructed by November.

The work on the second entry to the railway station will begin in November while the new staff quarters will come up by August next.

The concourse and through roof will also be raised by August next while the second entry station building will be completed by November next.

While the construction of the main station building will be accomplished by March 2025, the entire work under the project by August 2, 2025.

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