Suresh Prabhu lays foundation stone for elevated rail line on Rohtak-Gohana stretch

Nov 02, 2016: Union Minister for Railways, Suresh Prabhu laid foundation stone for the construction of 4 km Elevated Rail Line on Rohtak-Gohana Stretch in Haryana under Delhi Division of Northern Railways, through video-conference from Mumbai. A parallel synchronized ceremony was held at Rohtak on the same occasion. Manish Kumar Grover, Minister for Cooperation, Government of Haryana presided over the ceremony held at Rohtak. The project is envisaged to provide road-user safety whilst easing life of residents of the city. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar congratulated the railway minister through a telephonic message.

The Elevated Railway Line on the Rohtak - Gohana stretch in Haryana would be constructed at a cost of Rs 315 crore and would help in decongesting Rohtak city, provide safety to road users by eliminating 5 busy level crossings connecting residential colonies and enable operational flexibility for the railways. This is the first ever elevated rail track of Indian Railways built for facilitating smoother road traffic in densely populated city areas. The Railways will spend Rs 90 crore and rest will come from the Haryana Government.

The project will be completed by 2018 when the work on bullet train project actually starts. The tender for preliminary works such as survey, geo-technical investigations, design and drawing, etc has been awarded and work commenced. The elevated tracks are safer as there would not be any trespassing on them. The experiment will also help study how elevated tracks will help ease traffic problems in congested cities and can become an example for resolving urban transportation chaos.

Constructing elevated corridors will also save the hassles of land acquisition that can delay the project. An elevated corridor will be financially more viable compared to the compensation amount to be given to the land owners. Also, it will ensure speedy execution of the project.

A number of foreign countries have preferred elevated rail corridors. This not only ensures speedy execution of work but also saves human lives. Globally, a majority of high-speed trains have been operating on elevated corridors.