Will tour Anji, Chenab bridges, Sangaldan today
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 14: The Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Railways today reviewed construction and maintenance of rail tunnels and bridges on Katra-Srinagar track with top Railway officials at holy town of Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Ji shrine.
Headed by Dr CM Ramesh, Chairman, the PSC comprising 21 members and officials of Lok Sabha Secretariat reached Katra this morning. They visited the holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi Ji and paid obeisance to the Goddess.
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In the evening, they chaired a meeting to discuss construction and maintenance of rail tunnels and bridges including road over bridges/road under bridges in which they were briefed by the senior officers.
Tomorrow, the PSC members will inspect Katra Railway Station and review facilities for the passengers. They will meet senior officers of the Railways to take briefing on trains, facilities and various other issues concerning safety and security of the trains and passengers.
They will board special train from Katra for Srinagar and will inspect Anji bridge, Chenab bridge and Sangaldan enroute before de-boarding at Srinagar.
The PSC will have detailed review of safety of vital bridges on Katra-Srinagar railway track. Anji bridge is India’s first cable stayed rail bridge while Chenab bridge is highest rail bridge in the world. Sangaldan is one of the major halting stations of Vande Bharat trains running between Katra and Srinagar.
After review at Katra and enroute, the Parliamentary Standing Committee will reach Srinagar tomorrow afternoon.
During its visit in Kashmir also, the PSC will visit Srinagar, Baramulla and other Railway Stations to examine facilities and safety features and will be briefed by the Railway officials.
The PSC will later submit its report in the Parliament.
Headed by SM Ramesh, the PSC on Railways comprised Damodar Agarwal, Tariq Anwar, Ummeda Ram Beniwal, Chhatelal, Kaushalendra Kumar, Khagen Murmu, Awadesh Prasad, MK Raghavan, Satabdi Roy, Swami Sachidanand Hari Sakshi, Bhola Singh and Gopal Jee Thakur, all Lok Sabha Members; Sarfaraz Ahmad, Narhari Amin, Subhasish Khuntia, Upendra Kushwaha, K Laxman, Sumer Singh Solanki, K Vanlavena and Mukul Balkrishna Wasnik, all Rajya Sabha Members.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat officials likely to accompany the PSC include Md Aftab Alam, Director and Secretary to Delegation, Savdha Kalia, Deputy Secretary Cell, Ram Sharan Yadav, Assistant Executive Officer, Virender Singh and Deepak Parmar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated train from Katra to Srinagar on June 6 ending years long wait of direct train to the Kashmir valley. Presently, two Vande Bharat trains are operating on Katra-Srinagar route but there has been demand from many quarters for addition of coaches and increase in number of trains keeping in view the long waiting and increasing demand for tickets.
From September, the Vande Bharat trains are expected to run from Jammu to Srinagar.
It may be mentioned here that a number of Parliamentary Committees have visited Jammu and Kashmir during past few days.
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