Ministry of Railways is constantly working on putting in place alternative arrangements in the wake of closure of Dhanbad-Chandrapura Railway line due to Jharia Coal Field Fire. Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu today again reviewed the alternative arrangements in a high level meeting attended by Railway board members. The participants at the meeting included Chairman Railway Board Shri A.K. Mital, Member Traffic Railway Board Shri Mohd. Jamshed and Member Engineering Railway Board Shri Aditya Kumar Mital and CMD, RITES (Railway PSU) Shri Rajeev Mehrotra. The Railway Minister directed Railway Administration to further plan ways and means to ease the problem being faced in the movement of passenger traffic and freight traffic in the region. He said that an action plan should be prepared and implemented in an expeditious manner for the benefit of the Rail users.
Under the direction of the Railway Minister, Railway Board decided that the infrastructure facilities at the Gomoh Railway stations need to be enhanced and upgraded as bulk of traffic will have to be moved via this station. The Board decided that the flyover work already sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 250 crore at Gomoh would have too additional connections (Rail on Rail) from Matari station so as to avoid reversal of trains at Gomoh coming from Dhanbad side thereby making traffic flow further smooth. Total cost of Gomoh flyover along with two additional Rail connections will be about Rs. 500 crore which has been sanctioned. It has been decided to expedite the construction of this flyover networks at Gomoh.
In addition, as an urgent short term measure,Railway PSU RITES has been asked to undertake the feasibility study for diversion of track of affected portions only and submit the report at the earliest. After that the appropriate strategy of creating new infrastructure will be prepared and implemented. Coal Ministry will be approached for funding of local diversions as well as permanent measures to deal the passenger trains as well as freight traffic. Zonal Railway will interact with State Government for early acquisition of land and work will be taken up on priority.
The Railway Administration is also exploring the possibility of running some more passengers carrying trains through short termination and diversion.
The Railway Board, East Central Railway Zone and Dhanbad Railway division are constantly monitoring the situation and regularly working on to devise steps to mitigate the problems for rail users.
