Infrastructure
Bengal To Get A New Passenger Terminal At Dankuni, Near Kolkata
- Dankuni is a suburban station under Howrah division of Eastern Railway.
- The possible announcement of a new passenger terminal at Dankuni in the Budget would assume significance as West Bengal goes for Assembly elections in April this year.
A WAG-9 loco at Dankuni. Representative image (Smeet Chowdhury/Flickr)
The upcoming Budget 2021-22 is likely to offer a greenfield coaching terminal with platforms, maintenance shed and other ancillary infrastructure at an estimated cost of over Rs 430 crore at Dankuni in West Bengal, fulfilling a long awaited demand from the region.
The Railway Board is favourably examining the detailed project report (DPR) on the Dankuni terminal submitted by the Eastern Railway and the mega project is likely to be announced in the forthcoming Budget in Parliament on 1 February, said a senior railway official aware of the development.
The rate of return of this project is 20.24 percent and the annual maintenance cost of this terminal is expected to be Rs 49.76 crore while gross earnings are estimated to be Rs 143.43 crore in a year, according to the DPR.
Due to non-availability of railway land there is no scope for further expansion of these terminals. Therefore there is a need for a new coaching terminal.
The coaching facility at Dankuni is likely to become a satellite terminal for Howrah.
Railways is also developing sectional capacity on the golden quadrilateral and its diagonals.
Dankuni will also have a freight terminal as the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor is connecting Dankuni to Ludhiana and the sanctioned work is progressing fast.
