Punjab govt and the Railway have decided to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable the state PWD department to execute railway overbridges.

“The Union Railways has decided to sign an MoU with the Punjab government’s PWD department that will enable the state government to execute Railway Over Bridge (ROB) portion of project along with approaches to ROBs, expediting the construction of these projects,” a state government release said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting between Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and Railway officials during a review of the ROB and Railway Under Bridge (RUB) projects in the state in New Delhi.

Top Northern Railway officials, state government and PWD officials were present on the occasion.

At the meeting, Badal emphasised that he had already met Railway Minister Mamata Banerjeee and the Railway Board chief in this regard and they had agreed to his proposal for unified command for ROB projects.

It was informed in the meeting that the PWD department had already started construction of 28 ROBs/RUBs, of which 22 were completed and operationalised by October this year at a cost of Rs 392 crore.

Badal also stressed the need to expedite and complete the ROB projects for Jawala Flour Mill in Amritsar, Morinda Bypass, NH-1 to Dera Baba Jaimal Singh Beas, Ghudda-Badal Road in Bhatinda and Fatehgarh.

He was assured that work on these was on at a fast pace and these would be open to traffic by March 2011.

However, the ROB at Chawapail on Chawa-Samrala Road would be completed by October 2011.

The Deputy Chief Minister also discussed with railway officials the progress of 22 ROBs/RUBs being constructed in the state at a cost of Rs 417 crore.

“These projects are on at Barnala, Budhlada, Shambu, Mukerian-Gurdaspur Road, Bathinda-Talwandisabo Road, Sunam-Lehra Road, Sunam near Grain Market, Khanna-Lalheri Road, Malerkotla-Raikot Road, Gobindgarh-Kheri Naudh Road, Amritsar-Bhikiwind Road, Gidderbaha, Sanewal, Tarntarn, Mukatsar and Amritsar City. These projects are at different stages of work and would be completed by October 2011,” the release said.

The meeting decided that the ROB in Southern Bypass of Ludhiana City would be executed by the state PWD Department instead of Railways.

The two ROBs on Ludhiana-Dhuri line and Ludhiana-Ferozepur line would be completed in the next nine months.

Punjab to have corpus fund for BPL families

The Punjab Govt will create a corpus fund for providing free medical treatment and health care facilities to the BPL families of the state in private super speciality hospitals.

A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at a meeting of Board of Directors of Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) in Chandigarh on Tuesday, an official spokesman said.

Expressing concern over the plight of poor patients, Badal said now-a-days getting medical and health care facilities in private super speciality hospitals was beyond the reach of these hapless persons.

Badal also approved in principal that GMADA would contribute to this fund 20 percent of the amount that it earned from the auction of the land to the private players for establishing these private super speciality hospitals.

The meeting was also decided to grant approval for allotment of land to 13 co-operative house building societies for the construction of multi-storey flats with a condition no new member would be registered.

Badal also directed GMADA to prepare a plan for the construction of a working women’s hostel.