Piyush Goyal, Union Railway Minister on Thursday inaugurated three projects of Eastern Railway as under:-
- 140 KM of railway electrification in Katwa-Azimganj and Manigram-Nalhati sections of Howrah and Malda Divisions,
- 41.13 KM of double line/third line over Howrah, Malda and Sealdah Divisions of ER and
- Three mega watt roof top solar plant at Howrah station
Electrification of 140 KM covering Katwa-Azimganj and Manigram-Nalhati sections has been commissioned at a cost of about Rs 219 crore.
With this, 83 per cent route kilometers over Eastern Railway has been electrified with the balance slated to be done by 2021.
The Minister also inaugurated 41.13 km long double Line/third Line.
The sections inaugurated were Nimtita-Dhulianganga (11.38 KM) and Sujnipara-Nimtita (6.72 KM) of Malda Division, Mile 5B-New Alipore (1.67 KM) of Sealdah Division besides Lalbagh Court Road-Khagraghat Road (7.40 KM) and Debipur-Rasulpur 3rd line (13.96 KM) of Howrah Division.
The cost of execution of these projects totaled about Rs 550 crore. With this, throughput of these sections has increased and punctuality improved by five per cent over last fiscal.
The three mega watt roof top solar power plant at Howrah will supply electricity @ Rs. 3.62 per unit for 25 years as against the present rate of Rs. 8.50 per unit. The total cumulative revenue saving will be about Rs. 40 crore over the next 25 years.
Goyal also flagged off through video link train number 13063/13064 Howrah – Balurghat – Howrah express with increased frequency from bi-weekly to five days a week (except Saturday and Sunday) besides dedicating the 7.25 km double line between Andul and Baltikuri in South Eastern Railway.