Overview
- Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu said officials have been told to restart procedures on the 40‑km link after years in the freeze category.
- A Northern Railway construction chief’s letter records the Railway Board’s desire to defreeze the project and seek swift sanction of a resubmitted detailed estimate.
- Defreezing reactivates official processes; construction can begin only after sanction of the revised estimate and resolution of land and alignment hurdles.
- The line was sanctioned under British rule in 1929 and shelved in 1932 after roughly one‑third progress, later labeled a ‘socially desirable project’ in the 2010 Railway Budget.
- Estimated cost has risen from about ₹205 crore to roughly ₹840 crore, with supporters citing industrial, pilgrimage and regional connectivity gains, echoing recent revivals like Rajpura–Mohali and Ferozepur–Patti.