New Delhi, Apr 1 (PTI) Two women members of Parliament on Wednesday raised railway connectivity demands in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, seeking a stoppage of the Neelanchal Express at a station in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district and the expansion of rail infrastructure in Chhattisgarh’s tribal areas.

BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh Seema Dwivedi urged the government to halt the Neelanchal Express (Train No. 12875-12876), running between Puri and Anand Vihar Terminal, at Mughra-Bashapur railway station for two minutes, saying thousands of migrant workers from Jaunpur district had been demanding the stoppage for 40 years.

Dwivedi said workers from Jaunpur are employed across Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar, with families now into their fifth and sixth generation in these states. She said they were forced to deboard at Varanasi or Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya station and undertake a further journey on local trains to reach their villages.

“This train passes through Jaunpur district but people are unfortunate that it does not stop at any railway station of Jaunpur district,” she said.

Congress MP from Chhattisgarh Phulo Devi Netam urged the government to expedite a new rail line linking Pendra Road, Amarkantak, Dindori, Mandla, Ghansor, Lakhnadon, Gotegaon and Sridham, saying it would boost religious tourism and drive regional development in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

Netam also demanded inclusion of Bilaspur in the CTCE Plan 2030, extension of the Raipur-Secunderabad and Nagpur-Mumbai routes to Bilaspur, and early launch of the Korba-Bikaner Express and the Korba-New Delhi rail service.

She sought integration of the proposed rail line with the ITRC junction on the lines of connectivity already available to Delhi and Mumbai. PTI LUX DR DR