New Delhi. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paid a courtesy call on Ashwini Vaishnav, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology, in New Delhi on Saturday. On the request of the Chief Minister to strengthen the mobile network in Uttarakhand, the Union Minister approved 1206 mobile towers of BSNL in Uttarakhand. The cost of each mobile tower will be Rs 1 crore. The Chief Minister also requested to start a Jan Shatabdi rail service between Tanakpur-Dehradun. Regarding the Roorkee-Deoband rail project, finalizing the contribution amount of 296.67 crores paid by the state government so far, he also urged to free the state government from paying the remaining due amount of 99.01 crores against 50 percent contribution.

The Chief Minister said that at present there is only one train service running between Dehradun-Kathgodam to connect Kumaon and Garhwal. Due to being a Nepal border, the movement of people there is from Tanakpur itself. Therefore, to further strengthen the Kumaon-Garhwal connectivity, it is necessary for the public interest to operate a Jan Shatabdi rail on the Tanakpur-Dehradun route.

The Chief Minister also requested making the Tanakpur-Bageshwar railway line broad gauge instead of narrow gauge, making the Haridwar-Dehradun rail line double lane, modernization of Harrawala railway station, Rishikesh-Uttarkashi rail line, and Kichha-Khatima rail line. In respect of which agreed by the Railway Minister. The Chief Minister also requested to make necessary arrangements to complete the journey in 05-06 hours by reducing the travel period of Purnagiri Jan Shatabdi running between Tanakpur to Delhi.

The Chief Minister said that in the context of the Roorkee-Deoband rail project, in the order given by the State Government to bear 50 percent of the project cost in the past, the contribution of Rs. has been given. In view of the limited financial resources of a small and hilly state like Uttarakhand, the Chief Minister asked the Union Railway Minister to finalize the amount of contribution paid so far by the State Government by paying the remaining amount of 99.01 crores against 50 percent contribution. requested to be released.