Rawat urges Centre to expedite Harrawala railway project

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat urged the Centre to form joint venture of a central agency and Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) to expedite construction of a world class railway station at Harrawala near here.
In a letter to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, Rawat also urged him to expedite other railway projects in the state.
Rawat suggested that either an experienced central government agency should collaborate with the state run MDDA for building the railway station at Harrawala equipped with modern facilities or a separate body be created for the purpose.
He said the Harrawala project is to be implemented on PPP model and would cause no financial burden to the Centre adding that the state is ready to acquire land for the purpose.

The state government has made MDDA the nodal agency for the self-sustainable railway station project near Dehradun, he said in the letter.
With increasing population and Dehradun being the gateway for Chardham pilgrims the railway station in city, having just 4-5 platforms, becomes extremely congested, he said.

A state of the art railway station equipped with modern facilities in neighbouring Harrawala will help decongest Dehradun railway station, he added.
MDDA in consultation with DRM Moradabad has worked out a plan for the project which envisages to initially build eight platforms at Harrawala and leave scope for extending the number to 13.

Rawat also requested the Minister to fast-track work on Rishikesh-Karnaprayag, Tanakpur-Bageshwar, Kashipur-Dhampur and Saharanpur-Vikasnagar lines considering the strategic importance of Uttarakhand which shares borders with Nepal and China.