The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday said it would speed up the construction of the new broad-gauge rail link between Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar in order to complete it by 2013.
The project, which would shorten the distance between New Delhi and Uttarakhand considerably had hit a roadblock owing to tedious land acquisition process in both Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
An investment of Rs 336.92 crore is proposed in the project, said chief secretary Subash Kumar after holding meeting with senior officials of the northern railway including chief engineer S C Jain at the secretariat here.
Kumar also directed the district magistrate of Haridwar and other senior officials to speed up the land acquisition work by September and warned that any delay in the project would invite punitive action. Kumar also said the government has already paid Rs 80 crore and the remaining Rs 40 crore would be paid in two installments of Rs 20 crore each.
The Roorkee-Muzaffarnagar project was sanctioned in the Union Budget 2007-08. It is 28.48 km long with 11.35 km falling under Uttarakhand and 17.13 km in UP.
On the request of the state government, the railways took up the project and began the land acquisition process. The status of land acquisition is at different stages in both the states. This project is being executed on cost sharing basis with 50 per cent of the cost being shared by the state government.
Initially, the railway line was to come straight from Muzaffarnagar to Roorkee but following the request of Muslim leaders, Deoband was also added to the line.