79 years after independence, two historical cities of Aligarh and Mathura, which are merely 60 km apart, still do not have a railway line connecting them. To change this situation, Indian Railways has begun what is being called a final location survey, and the plan is to now connect the two cities via the Medu junction on North Eastern railway's Mathura-Kasganj section, a report by PTI has revealed.
This development comes in the wake of Mathura MP Hema Malini's proposal submitted to the central government and discussions Railways officials undertook with members of Parliament from the North Central Railway's Agra Division. Malini had letter to the General Manager, North Central Railway on September 14.
"The proposed rail link will ease travel between the cities and will reduce the commuting time between the two cities significantly," Hema Malini had said, as per PTI.
The Railways have also assured her that they would consider her demand to extend the Agra-Varanasi Vande Bharat to Mathura after development of adequate maintenance facilities for Vande Bharat trains at the station, Janardhan Sharma, the MP representative of Hema Malini, said.
Passengers who travel between the two cities have to keep depending on alternate forms of transport, and often deal with the inconvenience that comes with longer journeys. The railway link that is being proposed will reduce the time of commute for passengers.
Railway lines in Goda
As per a report by Live Hindustan, efforts are underway for a number of railway lines in Goda as well.
Plans to build a new line (15.72 km) that stretches between Jhilahi and Tikri in the Gonda district are being accelerated. A doubling project, Mankapur-Tikri, which will be 28.37 km wide with a Y-connection at Mankapur, was approved in 2025.
This will also include the doubling of the line from Mankapur to Tikri.
The publication cited the North Eastern Railway CPRO to reveal that a gazette notification has been issued for land acquisition for doubling the track between Mankapur and Tikri railway stations and laying a new Y-shared line between Jhilahi and Tikri.
A Section 20F notification will be issued to acquire 3.19 hectares of land and work will begin once this acquisition is done. The proposal for forest clearance for Tikri-Jhilahi section is in the process of submission on the Parivesh portal.
The report also reveals that railway officials are camping in Tikri forest and trees are being cut from forests on both sides of the proposed area for the railway line.
With agency inputs