Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami urged Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav to introduce Janshatabdi train service between Tanakpur and Dehradun and a Shatabdi Express train service between Delhi and Ramnagar.
Pushkar Singh Dhami raised the issue during a courtesy call he paid to the Union minister in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The chief minister also requested Ashwini Vaishnav to approve the construction of a tunnel-based rail line project and the Rishikesh-Uttarkashi rail line project to connect Dehradun to Saharanpur via Mohand railway. Urging the Union railway minister to start the Vande Bharat Rail service from Haridwar to Varanasi, he said it would ease the movement of devotees and tourists.
He urged the government of India to bear the full cost of the Kichha-Khatima new rail line project. He also requested to operate a direct train service between Ramnagar, Haridwar and Dehradun.
A sufficient number of train services should also be started from different places of the country mainly from New Delhi, Mathura, and Lucknow to Tanakpur for the remaining period of Purnagiri Mela.
The CM said, “At present Dehradun-Kathgodam Janshatabdi is the only train service connecting Kumaon and Garhwal. On The Nepal border, the traffic of the people there also happens from Tanakpur only, so the operation of the Janshatabdi train service between Tanakpur-Dehradun is necessary.
He said the famous tourist destination Jim Corbett National Park under the Ramnagar area of Nainital keeps coming and going tourists from the country and abroad. That’s why the operation of the Delhi-Ramnagar Shatabdi Express train service is very important. The Chief Minister said that at present one has to go via Haridwar to reach Dehradun from New Delhi by rail.
The railway line between Haridwar and Dehradun is a single lane as the most part comes under Rajaji National Park, hence train speed is highly regulated with respect to wildlife protection. As a result, the entire journey takes a relatively long time.
In such a situation, if some part of the Dehradun to Saharanpur via Mohand rail line passes through the tunnel, it will increase the speed of the train and reduce the travel time.