Howrah station twin may move south

KOLKATA: Residents of south Kolkata need no longer rough it to Howrah to catch an express train. A swanky, state-of-the-art railway terminal will soon come up at Majherhat — the city’s fourth mega terminal after Howrah, Sealdah and Chitpore.
This will mean scrapping the original blueprint to convert the Shalimar goods yard into a passenger terminus, but the planners feel it is in the best interest of industrial revival that the goods yard stays the way it is.
“Though the state government was insisting on a second railway terminal near Howrah, the railways felt that south Kolkata needed it more,� said Vinod Narain Garg, the general manager of South-Eastern Railway and Eastern Railway.
As part of the project, SER will build a new road-cum-rail bridge across the Hooghly. If things go according to plan, several express and mail trains that now terminate at Howrah will come up to Majherhat by the bridge.
Senior officials are now conducting a survey at the proposed site. The report will be handed over to the state government by the end of this month.
“The need for a fresh terminal had come up during discussions with the state government. Shamilar would best serve as a goods yard. The SER conducts its entire parcel traffic from there. Besides, the access routes to Shalimar Yard cannot handle the huge traffic associated with passenger terminals,� said Garg.
The SER survey at Shamilar endorses Garg’s views.
“Most industrial units in Howrah have shut down. Turning Shalimar goods yard into a passenger terminal would, in fact, seal all possibility of their revival because the yard was the lifeline of industrial units. Moreover, around 5,000 casual labourers would have lost their jobs,� said a railway official.
To reach the new terminus, trains will branch off near Santragachi station, come up on the Hooghly just opposite Khidderpore Docks and cross over on the rail-cum-road bridge. The bridge will be “shared� by the KoPT and Eastern Railways, sources said.
Garg pointed to the other advantages too. “Majherhat station is directly linked with Sealdah and is soon going to be a part of the Circular Rail linking NSCB International Airport,� he said.
The new station could change the face of the city in the decade to come.