Bardhaman Dot Com News Bureau
Burdwan, 03 Sep 04 :
The much waited Bankura Damodar Railway (BDR) will restart from 14th January 2005, informed Basudev Acharya, MP & member of the rail board today at an exclusive interview with bardhaman.com. He was in the town to inaugurate & address a open session at the 8th state conference of the union of the West Bengal University Employees.

The BDR operated till late eighties when it was shut down due to lack of passengers. The train once the only lifeline connection between the Bankura & Burdwan districts, was started by the British as a narrow gauge railway. The lack of speed & modernisation took the passenger off the trains before it was closed down. The project was planned to be revived when Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister at the NDA government. The plans were to convert the track to a broad gauge one & connect it with the Howrah Burdwan chord line near Masagram to make it more attractive to the passengers and hence economically viable. This will also reduce the distance between Howrah & Bankura.

Acharya today also informed that the entire project divided into three phases will be complete by the year 2007. "In the first phase, the trains will start rolling from Bankura to Sonamukhi from 14th January 2005. The trains will ply between Raina & Bankura, the erstwhile route of the BDR by the end of 2005 & the entire project is scheduled to be complete by the year 2007" described Acharya. He also informed that train services will start at the much awaited Howrah - Digha route before the puja. "The entire work has been finished & awaiting the inspection & clearance of the railway safety board, after which regular train services will commence" informed Acharya. He also informed that the Eklakhi - Balurghat project will be completed by the end of this year.