NEW DELHI: Over the past two decades, the suburban ring rail network in the national capital has been lying in neglect due to the lax attitude of authorities — leading to a massive drop in the number of passengers.
The Railway Ministry’s latest plan to revive the ring network constructed in 1975 to bypass the crowded old Delhi, New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin railway stations by integrating the ring rail with the Delhi Metro and leasing out land for commercial use, has hit a roadblock with land encroachment issues.
As the final report on the feasibility study commissioned by the Railways in 2015 to revive the 43-year-old network is awaited, few of the nine point agenda were communicated to the railway officials recently.
The foremost problem faced by the network, according to the communiqué, is land encroachment — stations opening to narrow, dirty alleyways — often more than a kilometer away from the main road.
According to the northern railway officials, proposal to construct two fresh lines by removing the encroachment near the railway tracks and developing commercial structures is underway.
For commercial use of land and to integrate the ring road network with the Delhi Metro, stations in business centres like Kishanganj, Patel Nagar, Naraina Vihar, Sarojni Nagar, Safdurjung, Lodhi Colony and Lajpat Nagar have been identified. According to officials, the area around these stations will be developed commercially and hotels, restaurants, hospitals, shops, parlours, games parlours and residential complexes would be constructed.
However, the railway is finding itself in a tight spot with the present Aam Aadmi Party government’s reluctance to take any strong steps to remove encroachers on government land.“Many times, great visions and planning remain just on paper if the elected people do not have the determination to push for it. The present government is encroacher-friendly?” said a high ranking official privy to the development plans.
Despite repeated attempts to contact Delhi Minister of Transport Kailash Gahlot, he did not respond.
“Before we get down to the nitty-gritty of the study, the land encroachment problem has to be resolved. We are hopeful, but as of now the network needs a lot of attention. Resource generation will only start if we work on commercial use of land which will attract daily passengers and businessmen,” said RN Singh Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi Division, Northern Railways.“We are hoping to have connectivity for all our ring rail stations, With DMRC, a detailed feasibility study is being done. Currently we have around six stations which are in close range with metro stations and so in order to develop them further, we have to have better approach roads and good visibility which is lacking currently. We have written to the Delhi government on this,” added Singh.
No takers for cheaper tickets
The suburban ring rail charges only I12 for the entire route when compared to the Delhi Metro, which charges around I60. However, it sill remains absolutely unpopular among the Delhi crowd.