Patna, April 17: Railway minister Suresh Prabhu today inaugurated passenger amenities at Adarsh station - Salauna in Begusarai district.

He also launched three other railway projects through video-conferencing from Rail Bhavan, New Delhi.

The projects included work on doubling of railway lines on the Hajipur-Bachwara, Samastipur-Darbhanga stretches and third line of Patratu (Dhanbad)-Sonnagar.

The doubling of the Hajipur-Bachwara track (72km) was sanctioned in 2015-16 financial year with the cost component of Rs 678.54 crore. The doubling of Samastipur-Darbhanga (38km) section will cost Rs 491.01 crore.

The Hajipur-Bachwara section is located on the Hajipur-Barauni high-density route on East Central Railway (ECR) and it is an alternative shortest route towards Northeast Frontier Railway.

The traffic utilisation of this section is 120.45 per cent with maintenance blocks. The doubling between Hajipur and Bachwara will help attain the fluidity of traffic movement.

The Indian Railway Construction (IRCON) Company is executing the project. Tenders have been awarded for earthwork, minor and major bridges. During the doubling work, six big bridges and 30 small bridges would be built.

On other hand, the Samastipur-Darbhanga section between Samastipur and Narkatiaganj is an alternative shortest route for traffic movement towards Northeast Frontier Railway region from Gorakhpur. It will also remove capacity constraints and help attain smoothness in traffic movement.

Railway Board chairman A.K. Mittal and its members and senior officers were present on the occasion at Rail Bhavan. The third line of the Patratu-Sonnagar project will cover Ramgarh, Hazaribagh, Latehar, Palamu and Garhwa districts of Jharkhand and Aurangabad district.

The doubling of the railway line would be completed in three years, whereas the third line would be completed in five years.

The new amenities at Adarsh station - Salauna include separate waiting room for ladies and gents with toilets. Other facilities are computer-based public address system and new circulating area with proper and adequate lighting. The station also has earmarked parking, pay-and-use toilet for gents and ladies in the circulating area. Salauna got a passenger reservation system, unreserved ticketing system, ramps at entry point for physically challenged people and separate parking for disabled people.

Non-slippery walkway from the parking lot to station building, wheel chairs, trolley path for wheel chairs and mobile charging points are also there.

As the railway minister could not come to Patna, ECR general manager D.K. Gayen was present during a function organised in Hajipur, the ECR headquarters.