Govt rejects ECR's proposal for Hazaribag railway junction

HAZARIBAG: The proposal of East Central Railway (ECR) to construct a railway junction at Hazaribag for smooth transportation of coal has been rejected by the Union forests and environment ministry.
ECR spokesman Jayant Kumar Chowdhury, who is also the deputy chief engineer, said that the reason for rejecting the proposal by the Union ministry was presence of dense forests between Shivpur and Hazaribag.He, however, said the ministry has advised to submit a fresh alignment of the project where felling of trees would be less that can be cleared by the ministry.
Chowdhury said after rejection of the proposal, ECR held fresh meeting and reviewed the proposal and decided to send fresh one to the Centre. The revised proposal submitted to the Central Forest Advisory Committee will be known as the Shivpur-Kathatia line for which 40 km will be laid in Chatra district and the remaining 10 km in Hazaribag. He added that now the new stretch would be 10 km away from the proposed Hazaribag railway station.