Chandigarh, Aug 17 (IANS) Former Minister of State (MoS) for Railways and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravneet Singh Bittu has hailed the sanction of the detailed estimate of Rs 1,419.05 crore for the 39.68-km Qadian-Beas new broad-gauge railway line, describing it as a major milestone for Punjab and a historic development for the Majha region.
The project was initially conceived in 1928.
He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw for taking forward the long-pending project and said on Sunday that the sanction marked a major breakthrough after years of efforts to revive and defreeze the railway line.
“I personally pursued this long-pending project and ensured that the Qadian-Beas line, which had remained stuck for years, was defrozen and brought back into active consideration,” Bittu told the media here.
He said the history of the Qadian-Beas railway project made the sanction particularly significant.
The project was originally approved during 1928-29, when construction had made substantial progress before being discontinued in the early 1930s.
It was subsequently revived under the Socially Desirable Rail Connectivity Programme and included in the Supplementary Railway Budget of 2010-11 as a socially desirable new line project, with an estimated cost of around Rs 205 crore at that time.
Despite the sanction, the project remained stalled for years due to technical, alignment, land acquisition and procedural issues.
“During my tenure, I repeatedly took up the matter with the Railway Ministry and railway officials and pushed for the defreezing of the project so that this long-pending rail link could once again move towards implementation,” Bittu said.
In June 2026, the Union government formally announced the revival of the rail line.
The latest Railway Board sanction has now placed the detailed estimate at Rs 1,400 crore.
The proposed railway line will connect Qadian in Gurdaspur district with Beas in Amritsar district through a 39.68-km broad-gauge corridor.
The alignment will pass through Qadian, Dhapai, Ghuman, Butala, Sathiala and Beas, bringing several previously underserved areas of the Majha region onto the railway network.
Bittu said that Gurdaspur and Batala will gain substantially from improved access to the railway network through the Qadian corridor, while Beas will provide an important connectivity point towards the wider railway network.
“This will make movement of people, agricultural produce, traders, students and pilgrims easier and more efficient and will strengthen economic linkages between towns and villages of the Majha region,” he added.
The project includes crossing stations at Ghuman and Butala, 11 major bridges, 121 minor bridges, 54 road under bridges, modern signalling and telecommunication systems and Kavach technology.
–IANS
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