Ranchi, April 13: Railway minister Nitish Kumar today unveiled a quiver of bonanzas for the capital, starting with the announcement that the Rajdhani Express from Ranchi would now run twice a week.

At the formal inauguration of the Ranchi railway division, Nitish also announced that the recruitment board here would select candidates from the general category as well.

“So far, the Railway Recruitment Board in Ranchi was recruiting only SC/ST candidates. Now it will also conduct recruitment process for the general category. Local people would be inducted in Grade-III and IV jobs,” the minister said to thunderous applause at the railway grounds near the Hatia station.

The Ranchi division has been in operation since April 1 after officer on special duty S.K. Behera took charge as the new division railway manager.

The minister today said work to convert the narrow gauge line between Ranchi and Lohardaga into broad gauge would be undertaken soon.

The new railway tracks, which Nitish announced, include Koderma-Ranchi, Koderma-Giridih, Koderma-Tiliya, Dumka-Deoghar, Dumka-Giridih and Lohardaga-Tori.

According to railway sources, survey on the Lohardaga-Tori line has been carried out and its completion will shorten the distance between Ranchi and Delhi by several hours.

In Gumla, where he inaugurated a computerised reservation centre, Nitish agreed to grant top priority to a more convenient Tata-Ranchi rail link and a new Gumla-Korba (Chhattisgarh) route once the ongoing six rail projects, now in advanced stages of execution, are completed.

The minister said the Tapaswini Express linking Hatia (Ranchi) to Puri would halt at Pokla in Gumla to respect the wishes of the people of the district.

Chief minister Arjun Munda and BJP MP Dukha Bhagat were present at the function in Gumla.

Chief minister Arjun Munda promised to rectify NH-23 at the earliest. He said that the government had recently withdrawn cases against 3,000 people involved in the Jharkhand agitation and added that remaining cases still pending would be withdrawn soon.

While praising the role of the police and the district administration in effectively controlling the extremist menace, Munda reiterated his government’s resolve to appoint 10,000 teachers on June 30 to boost the quality of education.