Lko-Sitapur rail route chugs into new era
LUCKNOW: The over 136-year-old rail route between Sitapur and Lucknow entered into a new era as the movement of standard broad gauge trains began amidst much fanfare on Wednesday.
Prior to this, the track that was lying closed for almost three years, following the work of broad gauge conversion, used to see the movement of maroon-coloured meter gauge trains, locally referred as ‘Chhoti lines’.
On the day, minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha inaugurated the route, kick-starting the movement of trains on the newly laid broad gauge route.
Addressing the gathering at Khairabad station in Sitapur, Sinha said efforts were being made in UP to strengthen rail infra and the inauguration of Sitapur-Lucknow route was a glaring example.
“Between 2009 and 2014, a budget of around Rs 1,109 crore was allocated for infra development. Whereas between 2014 and 2019, funds of Rs 5,278 crore were allocated for rail development works,” said Sinha, while highlighting the development work, carried out during Modi government’s regime.
The minister said continuous efforts were on to introduce world-class facilities at stations. He also announced the movement of three pairs of passenger trains and one express train on the route.
On the occasion Rajeev Agarwal, general manager (GM) NER and other officials were present.
The conversion of the 88-kmlong route was a part of North Eastern Railway’s (NER) exercise that broadly includes gauge conversion. In later phases, it will witness broad gauge conversion of tracks from Sitapur to Tanakpur via Pilibhit (236km), thus putting Chhoti lines on the route, off the track. A few senior officers with NER said meter gauge trains were introduced way back in 1880s, when UP that was then a part of United Provinces saw setting up of railway tracks.
As per a report published in a weekly tabloid—‘Karnama’ on September 14, 1885, the track-laying work between Lucknow and Sitapur was completed. But following floods in Gomti, the construction work of Gomti bridge was postponed.
“It also stated that the total estimated cost of the project was around Rs 18 lakh but the government released only Rs 10 lakh,” said Adnan Abdul Wali, who claims to be a descendant of freedom fighter Maulana Abdul Bari.
In the pre-Independence era, NER used to fall under the jurisdiction of regional railways that included Rohilkund and Kumaon Railways.
“The government acquired regional railways in 1943 and merged them into Oudh Tirhut Railways. And after India attained freedom, the Oudh Tirhut Railways was further merged with Assam Railways and on April 14, 1952 NER was eventually formed,” said an NER official.
Officials said meter gauge tracks used to be of the latest kind in that era as they were considered better than narrow tracks. But over the years, the capacity of tracks decreased and hence NER and other zones switched to broad gauge trains.
At present, NER has 26 trains that include the prestigious Nainital Express, Century Express and Rohilkhand Express. But, after the completion of the gauge conversion work, the traditional trains would be passé.