Huge financial loss due to stalling of Rs 402 crore Mathura-Vrindavan rail project forces Railways to weigh options

New Delhi: With the Rs 402 crore Mathura-Vrindavan rail link project stalled due to local opposition, the Railways is considering alternative plans like handing over the land to the state authorities for constructing a road or building an elevated track to address the residents' concerns.

While experts say the project has put a question mark on the Railways' foresight and planning and may cause a significant financial loss, the contractors are threatening to approach the court if their financial losses are not compensated.

Shashi Kant Tripathi, Chief Public Relations Officer of the North Central Railway, asserted, "We will act as per the instructions of the Railway Board and the existing policy guidelines."

The project was put on the back burner in August 2023, a few months after the Railways initiated the track conversion process in March following protests by Mathura residents who claimed that the rail link would disrupt their day-to-day lives.

The Railway Board had sanctioned the conversion of the metre gauge rail line between Mathura and Vrindavan to broad gauge in 2017-18 at an estimated cost of Rs 402 crore.

A contract was awarded to a company, ISC, worth Rs 191 crore in February 2023, and the dismantling of the existing track and the process of laying the new track was started on March 31, 2023. The contractor was supposed to finish the work in two years by March 30, 2025.

Another contract for the construction of the station building at Krishna Janmabhoomi and Vrindavan, including platforms and foot-over bridges, was awarded to HOG projects in May 2023 at Rs 38 crore.

The metre gauge track, constructed by the Britishers more than 100 years ago, was in operation with a one-coach rail bus that operated twice a day till early 2023. The service was stopped for the construction of the broad gauge.

The gauge conversion work was started from the Vrindavan but when the work began from the Mathura side in June 2023, local residents raised objections.

The railway officials said that the metre gauge was at the ground level and the speed of the rail bus was also slow, so the locals used to cross the track easily.

However, the new track was supposed to be constructed on an embankment, according to officials, and the locals said they would find it inconvenient to cross the track easily as they used to do earlier.

"The locals also complained that due to embankment, water logging will be a major problem on one side of the city. Also, the proposed road-under-bridge would face water-logging issues," a railway official said.

The resistance grew stronger when some organisations, residents and political leaders, including Mathura MP Hema Malini, backed the residents' demand.

In August 2023, the District Magistrate of Mathura constituted a committee consisting of city magistrate, senior officials from traffic police as well as municipal bodies to look into the concerns of the residents.

Meanwhile, according to an internal communication of the Railways, "a representative of MP Mathura released written information to the Press for publication on August 26, 2023, that Honourable MR (Minister of Railways) has consented for stoppage of subject work till grievances raised by local people are resolved".

On September 1, 2023, a meeting was held between senior officials, including those from the North Central Railway zone, the DM of Mathura, and municipal commissioner, the protesting residents, and their representatives among others.

The majority of the residents demanded the construction of a road on the railway land instead of a broad gauge rail line.

"Some of them also suggested an elevated railway line if required, but they all objected to the existing gauge conversion project," railway officials said.

Several other meetings were held with state Cabinet ministers, UP Brij Tirth Vikas Parishad and railway officials in which the demand for road construction was reiterated.

According to the Railways, amid consistent protests by locals, the contractor was asked to stop the work on September 19, 2023, and soon after that, a notice for the termination of the contract was served.

The contractor objected and served a notice quoting a loss of over Rs 50 crore due to the short termination of the contract, which the Railway is yet to clear.

"The Railways has already cleared the contractor's first bill of Rs 2.95 crore. The whole project is now directly under the supervision of the construction department of the North Central Railway zone," a railway source said.