Yavatmal: Work on the much-awaited 79-km Yavatmal-Digras
railway line, part of the long pending Wardha-Yavatmal-Nanded railway line project, will begin soon with two tenders being approved for an estimated cost of Rs.934 crore.
While the
contract for earthwork of 32km, costing Rs486 crore, has been granted to one Patel Engineering, the remaining length of 47km, estimated to cost Rs448 crore, has been allotted to one Shree Raj Rajeshwar Construction Company.
Both the works would start simultaneously.
The earthwork of the new railway
track between
Wardha and Yavatmal is almost complete, with small
bridges already being built and construction of a major bridge over Shirpur river is underway.
Work on the railway line beyond
Digras will also been taken up within four months, informed Lok Sabha member from Washim-Yavatmal constituency
Bhavana Gawali.
There are a few tunnels, the longest being 2.5km-long on the stretch, which are yet to be completed, said Gawali. Also, the railway line will pass through some forested areas and efforts are afoot to get green signal from the ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
“The main hurdle is, however, shortage of staff, for which I have urged railway minister and Railway Recruitment Board to fill up the vacancies so that the project can be expedited,” said Gawali.
Construction of stations on the railway line will start soon and bhoomi puja of the proposed railway station at Yavatmal has already been performed, said the
MP.