Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for selecting 15 Haryana stations for redevelopment under the 'Amrit Bharat Station Scheme'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country via video conferencing. These stations are spread across 27 states and union territories and also include 22 in Punjab.
According to an official statement, the 15 railway stations in Haryana which will be redeveloped under the scheme are Ambala City, Bhiwani Junction, Faridabad, Pataudi Road, Hisar, Bahadurgarh, Jind Junction, Narwana Junction, Narnaul, Kalka, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa, Sonipat and Yamunanagar-Jagadhri.
At an event organised at the Chandigarh railway station on the occasion, Khattar said remarkable works have been done in the infrastructure, road, and railway system sectors in the last nine years.
He said with the completion of the Kundli–Ghaziabad–Palwal Expressway and Kundli–Manesar–Palwal Expressway, traffic pressure on Delhi has reduced significantly.
Now, every district in Haryana is connected to a national highway. This has given a boost to the state's economy, the chief minister said.
Khattar said the Haryana Rail Infrastructure Development Authority has been constituted to strengthen the railway system and an MoU has been signed with the Railway Ministry under which a special purpose vehicle (SPV) has been formed.
The country's first elevated railway track, spanning five kilometres, has been built in Rohtak. The work on a similar track in Kurukshetra is almost complete while the detailed project report for Kaithal has been prepared, he said.
Haryana Orbit Railway Corridor from Palwal to Sonipat has been approved. Apart from this, metro connectivity is also being expanded, Khattar said.
Today, India's infrastructure is taking a new shape under the leadership of the prime minister, he said, adding that Modi himself monitors infrastructure development in the country under the PM Gati Shakti scheme.
Khattar said that Prime Minister Modi's blessings have been on Haryana and the development of rail infrastructure and services worth around Rs 20,000 crore are in progress in the state.
According to the official statement, 34 railway stations in the state will also be included in the second phase of the modernisation scheme.
Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit and Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta were also present at the event.
Addressing the function as chief guest, Purohit said that Punjab will also be benefitted from the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme as 22 railway stations of Punjab have been selected for redevelopment under it.
He said the scheme is set to revolutionise the country's railway infrastructure.
No one could have imagined that redevelopment of 508 railway stations would be taken up simultaneously, Purohit said.
Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta urged Railway Minister Vaishnaw to rename Chandigarh railway station as Chandigarh-Panchkula Railway Station.
He requested Purohit and Khattar to take up the matter with the Union government. Gupta also expressed gratitude to the prime minister for allocating Rs 511 crore for the redevelopment of Chandigarh Railway Station.