In a piece of good news for Haridwar, people of the holy city would soon ride electric trains to Dehradun. The work of electrification of railway line between Haridwar to Dehradun has started conditionally. Negotiation is on between the State Government and the railway officials.
However, the officials say they hope that things would materialize soon and the work of electrifying the tracks and others would be completed by June this year. They admit in the same breath that the charging of the trains would be a problem in the present situation as things would start only after they receive consent from the forest officials.
From luxor to Haridwar, the electrification of rail line has been completed. However, the extension from Haridwar to Dehradun is pending because of certain NOCs pending from the authorities of Rajaji Tiger Reserve.
Dwelling on the hassles, divisional railway manager Moradabad Pramod Kumar said to The Pioneer, “We hope to finish the electrification work of railway line by June, subject to the conditional clearances from the forest officials. Negotiations are on, but on some matters the decision is pending. For instance, the forest officials have asked us to reduce the speed of the train in forest area between Raiwala and Kansro forest range to 30 km per hour. But the train cannot run at less than 50 km per hour speed since the area has an ascending altitude.”
The second major hitch is the length of the platform loops, says the manager. “No matter how powerful engine we make, it would not be feasible to run the small trains. We have completed the work of wiring and masts in the whole stretch except at five/six places in the forest line between Kansro and Motichoor. lopping of trees between this range would begin as we have already got the go-ahead signal. Charging facility of the train still remains a problem which needs to be sorted out.”
Senior electrical engineer H K Sharma said, “The work has begun conditionally along 11 km stretch of the line between Raiwala and Kansro. After the inspection, it would be left open for the trains.”
If all road blocks are cleared, the electric train would fetch good revenue to the Railway department aside from facilitating the daily commuters from Haridwar to the State capital. Hundreds of students and working professionals travel between Haridwar and Dehradun on a daily basis.
A student of Baba Farid Management Institute Sarabjot Singh said, “I am eagerly waiting for the day the electric train service begins. I hope the electric train would start before I finish my final year of MBA. I am sure that things would be much easier for us who use the trains to travel. The sooner things are completed the better.”