Deputy Chief Minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh has urged the Union Railway Minister, Suresh Prabu for exploring the possibility of starting metro train services in the capital cities of the State and also asked for constitution of an expert committee for the same.The Deputy Chief Minister was interacting with the Union Railway Minister who was on a tour to the J&K State.
“There is an urgent need of providing metro services to the cities of Jammu and Srinagar which have witnessed large scale urbanization besides the population of these two cities has also increased geometrically leading to increase in traffic related problems. The metro service could provide much needed remedy to solve the traffic woes”, he added.
While discussing the railway sector in the State, Dr. Singh said that in order to give boost to the tourism industry, which is the main stay of the economy of the State, the railways should also connect the rail link between Kathua-Basholi-Bhaderwah and Jammu-Rajouri-Poonch. He said that these routes may be sanctioned so that the people of these areas also get the requisite connectivity with different areas of the State and inter connectivity of the Jammu and Kashmir is increased.
The Deputy Chief Minister also asked for setting up of an Industry linked with the Railway Department which would also provide employment opportunities to the youth of the State.
Referring to the fast pacing of the RAPDRP Part-II in the State, the Deputy Chief Minister urged the Union Minister to pass the necessary instructions to the executing agency IRCON which is a subsidiary organization of the railways to ensure completion of the project by the stipulated time period i.e. March 2016. He said that the PDD of the State is facing lot of hardships in providing better power supply to the public due to the slow pace of the work being done by the executing agency and there is a dire need of completing the project so that the people of the state get benefitted from the project.The Union Railway Minister assured the Deputy Chief Minister that he would address all the issues within the shortest possible time.