Union Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal will lay the foundation stone for a 20-km new line between Jhajha and Batia on March 2.
Estimated to cost Rs 496.37 crore, the line will have two stations Sono and Batia, 24 bridges, five road -over bridges and four road under bridges.
The line is a part of the Jamui parliamentary constituency in Bihar represented by Member of Parliament Chirag Paswan.
Gauge conversion works on the Sakri – Jhanjharpur – Nirmali section on East Central Railway is likely to be completed soon. This includes gauge conversion of the Jhajharpur – Laukaha Bazar branch line.
As part of this, the new station building at Jhanjharpur will be inaugurated on March 1 by the Member of Parliament, Jhanjharpur, Birendra Kumar Chaudhary.
The 51-km Sakri – Nirmali section has been subdivided into four sub sections for conversion – Sakri-Mandan Mishra Halt (11 km), Mandan Mishra Halt – Jhajharpur (9 km), Jhanjahrpur – Ghoghardiha (19 km) and Ghoghardiha – Nirmali (12 km). The tentative date for commissioning the Sakri – Nirmali section is March 2019.
The railway cum road bridge over the river Kosi (which was washed away in floods in the year 1936) connecting Nirmali and Saraigarh (22-km section) is also being targeted for commissioning by March 2019. This will restore rail connectivity between the Mithila region of Bihar (Darbhanga) with the Kosi region (Saharsa, Forbesganj, Purnia) after over eight decades.
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