Residents to stage protest march to Chandor railway station today
the goan I network
MARGAO
The protest march scheduled on Sunday morning at 10.15 am also comes against the backdrop of ambitious plans by the Indian Railways to double the line and with the Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd knocking the doors of the District Collector, South for acquisition of around 28,333 sqmts of land for the doubling of tracks project. While land admeasuring 23,490 sqmts is falling under the jurisdiction of Guirdolim Village Panchayat, the balance land admeasuring 4843 sqmts is located in neighbouring Chandor village.
The protest march was planned at the special gram sabha of the Guirdolim Panchayat last month, wherein villagers demanded that the government and the railways resolve the burning issue with either a flyover or a subway at the crossing before undertaking work on the line doubling project.
In fact, the railway line level crossing issue had been figuring at almost every gram sabha of the Guirdolim panchayat over the years, with politicians of all hues only handing out assurances on the eve of elections only to forget them after the polls.
What has now raised many an eyebrow in the minds of the villages of Chandor and Guirdolim is the plans by the Rail Vikam Nigam Ltd to go for the line doubling project. Villagers pointed out that the line doubling project would only make matters worse in the absence of any flyover or a subway with the increased frequency of trains running along the South Central Railway.
Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd senior officials have admitted that plans are in the offing to upgrade the Chandor railway station as a four-line station after the doubling tracking project by 2020. Rail officials have also not ruled out the possibility of the Chandor railway station becoming a terminating station if the Margao-Vasco section of the South Central Railway fails to receive the green signal for the line doubling project.
