India News | Restore Train Services on Kangra Valley Heritage Line: Cong

Shimla, Oct 12 (PTI) A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off a Vande Bharat Express train from Himachal Pradesh's Una, the Congress on Wednesday demanded that train services on the Kangra Valley Heritage Line be restored immediately.

The Congress alleged the ruling BJP does not care about the needs of the people of Himachal Pradesh and is busy inaugurating big projects to divert attention from real issues.

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In a statement issued here, Congress leader R S Bali said the BJP government has left the people of Kangra in lurch as it had failed to restore train services on the Pathankot-Jogindernagar Kangra Valley Heritage Line which had been suspended since July.

Train services on this line had to be suspended since July 14 because of heavy rains causing landslides, falling of boulders and flash floods due to which the rail line and bridges were badly damaged at several places, railway officials said.

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Subsequently, the bridge on the river Chakki between Dalhousie Road and Nurpur was damaged due to flash floods on July 31.

Bali said, "Since the PM will be inaugurating Vande Bharat Express (train in Una on Thursday), I would like to remind the BJP government that the Chakki railway bridge is indefinitely closed.... It's been months and there are no signs of reconstruction of this economically important bridge for Kangra."

"Yet again, BJP has proven that they do not care about the needs of Himachal people and are busy inaugurating big projects to divert people from the real issues," he added.

This railway service is lifeline for hundreds of villages in Kangra district which are not properly connected, he said adding that thousands of commuters used to travel in the trains on this track daily.

There are about 33 stations on this route and train is the only mode of transportation in some of the remote villages of the district, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)