M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Feb 21: Work on the road under bridge near the Daltonganj railway station is in full swing.
An 8.3-meter long concrete slab is to be added to the existing road under bridge of the railway. A workforce of 20 persons is doing the work round the clock.
The road over bridge is expanded for laying down of the third railway line. The third railway line is being laid from Patratu to Garhwa railway stations in the first phase.
Sources in the railways said the railways are determined to run even its engine on the third railway line in March up to Chiyanki railway station.
A one and a half kilometre patch of the third railway line is yet to be laid in the vicinity of the Daltonganj railway station. The expansion of the road under bridge has caused enormous traffic problems via 2 number town.
However, the pace of work going on there suggests the construction agency is serious about the completion of work to minimise the traffic inconvenience to the public.
A functionary at the construction site said the road under bridge may be opened by mid-March.
Sources said the construction site officials looked under tremendous pressure because the traffic on this stretch was blocked for a few weeks.
One functionary of the construction agency said, “We got delayed in getting permission for work to start on this road under bridge by about six months. The permission finally came from the municipal corporation and the district administration.”
The third railway line is caught in a vortex of contesting claims of the Palamu Tiger Reserve, according to sources.
The PTR has thrown its legitimate spanner in laying down of the ongoing third railway line between Hehegara and Chhipadohar railway stations citing its around 11 kms area through which the railway line will pass and will cut into the reserve badly.
Deputy Director North division of PTR Kumar Ashish said, “Our PTR is not against the laying down of the third railway line but we are telling the railways since long that 11 kms of our PTR land and forest along with the wildlife will be most affected as when there are just two railway lines Up and Down the frequency of the trains is near hundred a day which will shore up further with the laying down of the third railway line.”
Ashish said the PTR has suggested an alternate for the third railway line which will be away from the PTR and the railways too will not have much of a problem except some few hundred crores more expenditures. But the railways are not accepting PTR’s alternate mode of the third railway line.
