Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday asked Railways Minister Mukul Roy to run three special trains from Amritsar, Ambala and Bareilly to Bidar in Karnataka for facilitating the visit of devotees to Gurdwara Sri Nanak Jhira Sahib there.
Badal in a letter to Roy, asked him to direct the Railways to run three special trains on the historic occasion of the celebrations of 500 years of Nanak Jhira Pragat Samagam keeping in view the religious sentiments of the Sikh community from across the country.
He also requested Roy to direct the Ministry of Railways to immediately extend the Amritsar-Nanded Sachkhand Express to Bidar besides sanctioning a new direct railway line to connect Nanded and Bidar via Degloor.
He said that at present the pilgrims desirous of visiting Bidar from Nanded had to travel on a circuitous route covering a distance of nearly 300 km.
The Chief Minister sought Roy’s personal intervention for the construction of new direct railway line from Nanded to Bidar via Degloor which was just 130 Kms. He hoped that the new railway line would not only shorten the distance between Nanded and Bidar but also offer a comfortable journey to the devotees thereby saving lot of their time, money and energy.