Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Harjap Singh Aujla
Prior to 1947, Ferozepore in Punjab was a thriving transportation town with great rail and road connectivity with the provincial capital of Lahore and the industrial and commercial capital of the province Amritsar. Both links were via Kasur, a Tehsil headquarter town in Lahore district. Lahore in 1947 fell into the share of Pakistan and so did Kasur and as a result Ferozepore lost both of its important railway links. A much longer and indirect road linkage was subsequently established between Amritsar and Ferozepore via Harike Pattan confluence of the Beas and the Sutlej. But the vital North-South railway link did not see the light of the day all these years.
After the 1947 partition of Punjab, the entire border region of East Punjab, which used to be a flourishing area became neglected. The boundary line of prosperity moved Eastwards towards Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh. The entire border region of Punjab from Pathankot to Gurdaspur, Batala, Tarntaran, Patti, Ferozepore, Guru Har Sahai, Jalalabad and up to Fazilka became educationally and economically very backward. Amritsar, because of its pre-1947 economic momentum and due to the unmatched importance of the Golden Temple remained the only oasis of education, trade, industry, tourism and overall prosperity.
Several economists and men of wisdom have been suggesting the reconstruction of the railway link between Amritsar and Ferozepore. Former railway minister Laloo Parshad Yadav was requested by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2007 to build the missing railway link between Amritsar and Ferozepore. Even the local industry of Amritsar pitches strongly for it. But an obsessed with Bihar only, Mr. Laloo Yadav half-heartedly ordered a survey, which was completed. Later on Mamata Bannerjee, in her lopsided over-enthusiasm to dislodge the Left Front, directed all her energies towards the development of new railway lines in West Bengal.
The suddenly appointed and hastily replaced railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal is a son of the soil Punjabi. There was a lot of moral and political pressure on him to start the construction of this long ignored but important missing link. Finally in the All India Railway Budget of 2013, an announcement was made by the railway minister to include this missing link between Patti in former Amritsar district and the divisional headquarter town of Ferozepore on February 26, 2013. This strategic rail link will shorten the distance between Amritsar and the port of Mumbai by two hundred and forty kilometers. With the completion of this rail link, the entire backward border belt starting from Baramula in Jammu and Kashmir via Srinagar, Anantnag, Udhampur and Jammu and then the border belt in Punjab from Pathankot via Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar, Tarntaran, Patti, Ferozepore, Guru Har Sahai, Jalalabad, Fazilka and Abohar will be linked to Mumbai via Sri Ganganagar. Since there will be overall less traffic on this Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra corridor, the perishable fruits and vegetables shall be delivered in Mumbai and Gujarat within two to three days. Passenger travel time will be reduced by five to six hours. The most congested National Capital Region (NCR) rail corridor will be effectively bypassed. This railway line will also give boost to tourism in Vaishno Devi (Katra), Amritsar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Jaiselmer and Barmer. Mumbai shall be able to fast-track export its goods by rail to Northern thickly populated region of Pakistan via Amritsar and Amritsar shall export its woolens and other products to the world via Mumbai.
Now Pawan Kumar Bansal is not the railway minister any more. He had to resign following a corruption scandal involving his close relatives. But this project deserves to be completed. Once completed, this will become the economic lifeline of the entire Western border region of India including the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. The citizens of Amritsar and Ferozepore, in spite of political differences must unite and request the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi to complete this project without further loss of time.
