Keshubhai Patel government
has decided to run water trains:
The
Keshubhai Patel government has decided to run water trains from May
end, when the drought situation is expected to be at its peak. The decision
on water trains follows the Centre’s offer to provide free-of-cost rail
transport services to the drought affected governments.
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Free
Fodder by rail
- Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
has convened an all-party meeting to discuss the drought situation
in the country.
- Railways to carry fodder to drought-affected
areas free-of-cost, Prime Minister announced in Parliament.
- A Central control room has been
set up in New Delhi for round the clock monitoring of the drought
situation.
- Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar
reviewed at a high-level meeting the steps taken to provide
relief to the drought-affected areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat
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State Chief Secretary L
N S Mukundan held a meeting with railway officials to discuss arrangements
for running water trains.
P K Laheri, the Principal
Secretary to the Chief Minister, told that the government had identified
at least four water filling stations to draw water and transport it
to the worst-affected parts of Saurashtra. The filling stations identified
include Mehamdabad railway station in Kheda district (where the Mahi
river is the nearest source of water), Rajula railway station in Amreli
district with the Datarwadi dam being the source of water, Bhatiya station
in Jamnagar district where the water will be made available from Sani
dam and Vanthali station in Junagadh district where the water will be
filled from Moj dam.
Laheri said the possibility
of creating yet another filling station (Khodiyar railway station near
the Gandhinagar-Sarkhej highway) was also being explored to meet the
drinking water situation. About a dozen tubewells could be sunk in the
vicinity of Khodiyar station to make water available, he said.
A senior official in the
State Water Supply Department had a telephonic talk with the executive
director of the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) at Calcutta, requesting
him to allow the government to use the SAILs captive railway siding
at the Khodiyar station for water transport.
"We plan to run at
least four water trains a day between Khodiyar and Jamnagar, covering
several drought-hit villages in the region," the official said,
adding that each train comprising 60-70 tankers will carry about 1.70
MLD (million lifters per day) water. The exercise will involve the expenditure
of about Rs one crore, which include the costs of digging tubewells,
power consumption and constructing sumps to store water.
He said while the Mehmadabad-Jamnagar
and Khodiyar-Jamnagar lines are the broadguage, other destinations for
are on the metregauge routes. When pressed into service, the water trains
will be able to ease potable water crisis in hundreds of villages covering
at least five worst-hit districts of Saurashtra, which include, Jamnagar,
Junagadh, Amreli, Bhavangar and Rajkot.
Similar services were run
between Gandhinagar and Rajkot to meet the acute water shortage in the
mid-80s during the earstwhile Congress regime.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister
Keshubhai Patel has sent a detailed report of the drought situation
in Gujarat and measures initiated by the government to Union Rural Development
Sunderlal Patwa
In his letter, the Chief
Minister stated that in all two crore people and a crore head of cattle
had been affected on account of scarcity conditions. He said the scarcity
was severe not only because 9,421 villages in 135 talukas and 17 districts,
but also because 79 cities and four metropolises, including Ahmedabad
city, had been affected. The letter also detailed the number of relief
sites and other measures taken by the government.
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