Union Minister promises to accept feasible demands for Ranchi Division

Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha has announced Muri as a halt of Ranchi-Delhi-Ranchi Rajdhani with immediate effect, thus fulfilling a long-time demand of middle class to high end passengers, mostly of business fraternity residing around Muri. However, Sinha who is also Union Minister of State for Communications (Independent Charge) said on Monday at Ranchi railway station that the union government will accept all feasible and worth fulfilling demands of one of the largest revenue generator Railway Division of country.

Sinha who inaugurated a lift, escalator and a use and pay toilet at Ranchi Railway Station and five limited height subways on Gamharia-Sini section of Chakradharpur division on Monday said that Union government under leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi believed making only those promises which could be fulfilled within time. “This is why I am not in a position at this very moment to promise anything about the demands like trains connecting Ranchi to other state capitals of country. But I can assure that Ranchi division will be provided due consideration in future also,” said Sinha.

He added that there were many firsts in the history of Indian railways during last three years, and the government was serious to take such changes forward. “For the first time, we experimented on demand reservation in which passengers can get reservation anytime before departure of the train. We also experimented with timely arrival of train on pilot basis and succeeded with four trains in country. We will continue to provide best possible services to all class of passengers of Indian Railways,” said Sinha. Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Poddar, Urban Development and Transport Department Minister CP Singh, MlAs Navin Jaiswal, Anant Ojha, Shivshankar Oraon, Ex-MlA Samir Oraon, DRM (Ranchi) SK Agrawal, Additional DRM (Ranchi) AK Dutta and dozens of other railways officials were also present on the occasion.

“Data show that Ranchi division received merely Rs 450-500 Crores of yearly investment prior to year 2014. However, we have invested over Rs 1,895 during financial year 2015-16 and over Rs 2,200 Crores during last financial year. We have planned investment over 2,500 Crores in current financial year. We are working on 13 projects in Jharkhand and around Rs 1.25 lakh Crores are supposed to be invested in the region,” said Sinha.

Singh Said on the occasion that every sector witnessed at least some amount of work in last three years and Ranchi was privileged to have both Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu and Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha within two and half months. “I will request Sinha to start Jan Aahar Kendra at Ranchi Railway station just like the one at New Delhi Railway station which provides meal at Rs 10,” said Singh. However, Sinha didn’t entertain any of the demands put forward by Singh other than halt of Ranchi Rajdhani at Muri. Poddar said each and every official of any of the department had been appearing completely focused towards duties since last three years. He added that railways were probably the only subject in the parliament which attracted maximum number of attention during discussions.