Delay in decision-making over a land belonging to the railways has throttled commuters' dream of a six-lane expressway between R-block and Digha.

So far, the state government's efforts to acquire the 82-acre land on which the R-block Digha railway track runs have proved futile. Only one local train runs on this track and very few people use this service.

The proposed six-lane express road would have helped ease traffic. The train running between the two stations runs virtually empty and does not generate good revenue.

The train running on this track leaves commuters stranded at Hartali Mor four times daily during rush hour.

A four-member committee had been formed to look into the details of transferring the land after the railways had in principle agreed to the proposal. However, sources said that the railways was reluctant to hand over the land to the state.

A senior ECR official said: "The proposal of transferring the land is not on our priority list and no development has taken place after the July 25 meeting between railway minister Suresh Prabhu and chief minister Nitish Kumar. In the meeting, it was decided that the state government, instead of charging market value for the land, would compensate the railways with a similar size land at its desired place. But neither the railways nor the state has taken any concrete step regarding this."

Chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, however, contradicted the official's statement. He said: "Things are in process and the Railway Board has agreed to give the land. The state government would now send the report to the cabinet. Such issues take time, everything does not happen at one go."

The committee, which was formed to look after the land transfer issue, has been dissolved.

The committee had officials such as the chief administrative officer, construction, L.M. Jha and principal chief engineer Jagdeep Rai from the ECR.

Similarly, from the state government side, the team compromised then principal road construction secretary Arun Kumar Singh and IAS officer Chanchal Kumar.

For seven years, chief minister Nitish Kumar is urging the railway ministry to hand over the 7km-long R-Block-Digha railway line land to the state government to convert it into a six-lane express road.

According to railway experts, the track was laid by the British government to send grains to godowns. On July 11, 2004, then railway minister Lalu Prasad started the local train.