Samiti convener Rajesh Nandpuri criticised the MPs from Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi for inaction on the issue and said that this railway line was not only a mode of affordable transport but also a lifeline for thousands of residents, traders and tourists, who have relied on it for decades.
The samiti has already staged protests at Ranital and Kopadlahar railway stations and in Dharamsala. Meanwhile, resentment has been mounting among residents of Kangra district and commuters against the Northern Railway over its failure to restore services on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar track even though a new bridge had been constructed on the Chakki rivulet. Services on the route had been suspended in 2022 after the old Chakki bridge was washed away in floods.
Though the trials of passenger trains have been conducted and the technical wing of the Northern Railway, Jammu, has inspected the new bridge, the services are yet to be restored. A growing perception among commuters in the Kangra valley is that both the government and the Opposition are not taking the issue seriously.
Kangra MP Rajiv Bhardwaj had raised the issue in Parliament while Rajya Sabha MP Harsh Mahajan had recently written to Vaishnaw, urging him to ensure early restoration of the train services and the reconsideration of a proposal to shift the Kangra valley railway station from Pathankot to the Dalhousie Road. However, their communications have failed to yield results so far.
Sources reveal that a key reason for the unprecedented delay is the proposal to relocate the Kangra valley railway station from Pathankot city to the Dalhousie Road near Mamoon Cantonment, which Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu had reportedly accepted and sanctioned Rs 13 crore during a visit to Pathankot recently.
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