The Patliputra railway station. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Hurdles delaying the inauguration of Patliputra railway station have been removed.

East Central Railway (ECR) general manager Madhuresh Kumar recently met chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh on November 3 in which the hurdles coming in the way of making the railway station functional were ironed out.

Having been constructed at a cost of Rs 1.5 crore, the third major railway station of the city would reduce the load on Patna Junction and Rajendra Nagar Terminus.

However, railways could not make this junction operational due to agitation launched by the villagers of Rupaspur and Jalalpur demanding a road along the track passing through their locality.

The long tussle between the railways and the state government is going to end now, as both have arrived at a conclusion. The government has agreed to repair the 1km approach road, which is in a bad shape.

Located 12km northwest of Patna Junction, Patliputra Junction can help ease the pressure on the other two terminals through which around 350 trains pass daily.

Madhuresh told The Telegraph: “Patliputra Junction is ready for commissioning since 2012. Earlier, some trains were planned to be shifted from Patna Junction to decongest it. In 2013, two new trains have also been announced in the budget. However, due to agitation by local people, the successive efforts to open the junction has failed, so new trains were started from Danapur instead of Pataliputra Junction.”

The road is located on the land of railways and the formalities regarding carrying out work on railway land for repairing the road has been completed.

On the other hand, Anjani said: “Yes, a meeting was held to discuss the making the Patliputra Junction functional and we are ready to pay the amount as per the minimum value register. In simple words, I can say that now there is no problem and soon the people of Patna will use this station.

Earlier, the railway station was scheduled for opening in April last year, then on August 15 then on September 6 then on October 31, 2013, and the last was October 2, 2014. The facility, however, has remained unused owing to delay in installation of facilities. It was not being used for passenger services even though the commissioner of railway safety gave the green light to run the trains in November 2012.”