Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paid a courtesy call on Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav in New Delhi on Tuesday. During their meeting, CM Dhami requested the Railway Minister to take up various rail projects in the hill state bordering Uttar Pradesh. He urged the Union Railway Minister to start Vande Bharat Express train service from Haridwar to Varanasi. The Chief Minister said that this will provide a lot of convenience to the devotees and tourists. At present, there is no connectivity of Vande Bharat Express trains in Uttarakhand.
On the other hand, Varanasi is connected to New Delhi with one of the early Vande Bharat trains. The Chief Minister also urged the Railway Minister to start Janshatabdi train service between Tanakpur-Dehradun and Shatabdi Express train service between Delhi-Ramnagar. He also requested to operate direct train service between Ramnagar-Haridwar and Dehradun.
He said that Jim Corbett National Park located under Ramnagar area of Nainital is a popular tourist destination where there is a lot of movement from Delhi. That’s why operation of Delhi-Ramnagar Shatabdi Express train service is very important.
CM also requested the Railway Minister to approve the construction of tunnel based rail line project and Rishikesh-Uttarkashi rail line project to connect Dehradun to Saharanpur via Mohand railway. Highlighting the difficulties faced in going from New Delhi to Dehradun, Dhami said that to go from New Delhi to Dehradun, one has to travel by rail via Haridwar.
However, the railway line between Haridwar and Dehradun is single lane as it passes through Rajaji National Park, and hence, train speed is highly regulated with respect to wildlife protection. This adds additional travel time, which can be reduced if there is a rail line from Dehradun to Saharanpur via Mohand.
He further said that adequate number of train services should be started from New Delhi, Mathura and Lucknow to Tanakpur for the remaining period of Purnagiri Mela.
Discussing with the Railway Minister on rail services in Uttarakhand, the CM said, “At present Dehradun-Kathgodam Janshatabdi is the only rail service connecting Kumaon and Garhwal. Nepal border, the traffic of the people there also happens from Tanakpur only, so operation of Janshatabdi train between Tanakpur-Dehradun is necessary.