Gujarat’s wishlist for Railway budget 2012 – 13

Ahmedabad, 20 January 2012

Central railway budget 2012 – 13 will be presented tomorrow on 14th of March 2012, and here is a list on what kinds of announcements are wished by Gujarat politicians.

First lets explore the Gujarat BJP wishlist. The BJP MPs from Gujarat had visited central railway minister on 20th January early this year and had submitted a wishlist to him. Following were the wished expressed in this list:

Feasibility report on bullet train project had been already submitted to the railway department. The MPs demanded that the bullet train project should be declared a special project and should get weightage in year 2012-13 union railway budget.

-A new train between Amritsar and Surat should be started.

-Work for third track between Ahmedabad and Mumbai should be started.

-There should be better rail connectivity to strengthen the ports of Gujarat which will be resulted into lesser traffic and lower pollution.

-Work of railway four tracks should be speedily completed. The fourt tracks are: Ahmedabad-Mehsana-Jaipur, Rakot-Veraval, Rajkot-Okha and Rajkot-Viramgam.

-New rake points at Amreli, Porbandar, Kutch, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha should be given in view of the demand of fertilizer in the state and problems related to its supply.

-Modernization of Sabarmati railway station in Ahmedabad is long pending, and work should be started in this direction.

-Fabricated facility for transportation of salt is needed.

-New broad gauge railway line for Somnath, Dwarka, Ambaji should be declared.

Now let’s access what Chief Minister Narendra Modi had wished last year in his post budget statement:

-Gujarat is nowhere at present when it comes to setting up of Railway wagon manufacturing industry, coach factory, rail academy, design development centre, wagon repairing, multi training centres etc. Gujarat enjoys 40% area in Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor, but when it comes to setting up 10 auto-hubs on this line, Gujarat is absent.

-The Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project should be considered as fast track project.

-The people of Gujarat feel that Ahmedabad should become the headquarter of Western Railway but centre has ignored this.

-Ahmedabad’s Kalupur railway station was to be made a world class railway station but the project is still on paper. After the announcement of new railway track or railway line it takes 10 years for project survey and planning commission’s approval.

In his speech in parliament, Ahmedabad(west) MP Kirit Solanki spoke about a long list of what should be there in railway budget for Gujarat. Here is the list:

1. Set up terminal station at Sabarmati and Maninagar. Since Kalupur railway station is over burdened and it is in congested area, it is need of the hour to focus on Sabarmati and Maninagar Railway Stations and operations of long route trains from there.

2. Some trains needed are:
i) Ahmedabad-Rajkot-Hapa Shatabdi Train. Since there is not a single high profile train in Saurashrtra, it is badly needed.
ii) Ahmedabad-Delhi Duronto Express.
iii) Ahmedabad-Delhi Rajdhani Express via Anand, Dakor and Godhara.
iv) Ahmedabad-Jaipur Shatabadi Train
v) Ahmedabad-Haridwar-Deharadum Superfast Express
vi) Ahmedabad-Amritsar Superfast.
vii) Palan-Mumbai Superfast.

3. Gauge Conversion needed: Following are the demands (Broad gauge)
i) Ahmedabad-Botad-Bhavnagar
ii) Ramuj-Chanasma-Beeharaji-Katosan and Kalol
iii) Ahmedabad-Udaipur

4. New Broad gauge Lines needed
i) Chanasma-Harij-Radhanpur
ii) Ahmedabad-Mehsana-Delhi double line

5. Different Intercity trains between Ahmedabad to Patan, Palanpur, Rajkot, Bhuj, Bhavnagar, Surat, etc. should be started.

6. Head Quarter of Western Railway should be shifted to Ahmedabad. It is a long standing demand. Major network of western railway and major share of revenue is earned from Gujarat. Hence it is very important to shift the Headquarter of Western Railway to Ahmedabad.

-Surveys of different lines are illusive. They should bring concrete results. Surveys should be completed in proper time limit.

-Present Rajadhani Train between Ahmedabad and Delhi should have official stoppage at Sabarmati railway station in both up/down journey.

And lastly Gujarat Congress’s wishlist. A group of Congress MPs from Gujarat recently called on the railway minister and submitted him a memorandum asking for some kind of railway factory in Gujarat. The group of MPs was led by Ahmed Patel.

Region wise, Kutch is wishing for a new AC train between Mumbai and Kutch. The new train is expected to cover distance between Mumbai and Kutch in 12 hours. Another demand local MP of Kutch has made is to extend current Bhuj-Palanpur train upto Abu road.