State Cong for quick approval of freight corridor,farmers seek change in route

The farmers said large acres of fertile land will be lost if the freight corridor runs parallel to the existing railway track. They said a large number of farmers would become landless and many of them may not be able to rear cattle as they would not be in a position to grow fodder.

Farmers like Yusuf Khan from Palanpur,Maganbhai Chaudhary from Mahesana,Mulrajsinh Madhavsinh Parmar,Rashmikant Nanavati and Motibhai P Chaudhary from the kisan cell of GPCC said the railway board was also not providing compensation at market rates.

Though the minister promised to look into their complaints,railway officials later said that diversions had to be done to avoid heavy settlements that came in the way of constructing a parallel track between Amirgarh and Vadodara.

The total length of the electrified corridor is 1,426 km long and it is likely to be funded to the tune of 85 per cent of its total cost of Rs 25,000 crore by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). According to railway officials,WDFC will run the double stack container train and connect the ports in western India with Delhi,Punjab and Haryana.

Elsewhere,the GPCC demanded more wagons for fertilisers and salt transportation from Gujarat,approval for a circular train for Ahmedabad,Surat and a metro tube rail for Ahmedabad,doubling of the broad gauge line between Ahmedabad and various terminals in Saurashtra as well as the Ahmedabad-Delhi route via Mt Abu.

Other demands by the GPCC include conversion of the Udaipur-Ahmedabad,Surat-Hajira,Bharuch-Dahej,Vansjhadia-Jetalpur,Khedbrahma-Himmatnagar,Mahesana-Patan,Ahmedabad-Vijapur into broad gauge lines; direct train service between Dwarka and Haridwar; more reservation windows at major railway stations of Gujarat to avoid long queues; renaming of ‘garib rath’ to ‘aam aadmi rath’; and giving preference to the local people and land losers in employment opportunities as also conducting railway recruitments.