Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Varanasi Division of North Eastern Railway (NER), Vineet Kumar Srivastava said that the construction work on the progress of under-construction major Manjhi bridge on river Saryu is going on in full swing and it will be completed by February 2024. He was talking to the reporters in a formal chat during his inspection on Thursday. Manjhi is a major ridge separating UP and Bihar and it is located between Ballia-Chhapra Junction rail section.
Srivastava said that after the completion of this bridge, being built under the doubling project, the new trains will be operated on the routes. He also said that work is being done to complete the construction of Chhapra second entry gate by December this year. After his inspection of Chhapra Jn station, the DRM discussed various points with Saran’s MLA CN Gupta in the VIP Room at the station and assured the latter to look after the issues raised by the MLA during the meeting.
The DRM was conducting a window trailing safety inspection of Varanasi City-Chhapra Junction rail section for checking safety in rail operations and reviewing the progress of development works of passenger amenities.
During his inspection, the DRM first reached Gautamsthan railway station where he saw the goods shed. He directed the concerned officials to encourage maximum goods traffic there.
Then Srivastava reached Chhapra Jn station during his window trailing safety inspection. At Chhapra Jn station, he inspected station panel, platforms, general passenger hall, station building, platform sheds, foot over bridges, food and vending stalls, waiting rooms of different categories, unreserved ticket counters, luggage scanners, passenger reservation centres located in the circulating area, parking etc and saw the cleanliness and maintenance of station premises.
Later, Srivastava also inspected Chhapra Gramin railway station and inspected the goods shed there. He gave directions to the concerned officials to encourage maximum goods traffic. During his window trailing inspection, he also reviewed the safety aspects, progress of development works, upgradation of passenger facilities, cleanliness, availability of drinking water, compliance of temporary vigilance orders and safety-related staff on the Varanasi City-Chhapra rail section.
He also checked the safety of the rail track, rail ballast, track screening, overhead traction alignment, working order and track maintenance of the railway section.
During his inspection, he was accompanied by Additional Divisional Railway Manager (Infra) Rahul Srivastava, Chief Project Manager (Gati Shakti) Kaushalesh Singh, Principal Chief Signal and Telecom Engineer Nilabh Mahesh, Senior Divisional Engineer-I Rishi Srivastava, Senior Divisional Operations Manager Ajay Pratap Singh, Senior Divisional Signal and Telecom Engineer-2 Yashveer Singh, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (General) Pankaj Kesarwani, Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer (Traction) RN Singh, Deputy Chief Engineer (Gati Shakti) IC Subhash, Assistant Commercial Manager Ajay Kumar Suman, Public Relations Officer Ashok Kumar and many other senior officers of Varanasi Division of NER.