Centre sleeping over decision on Katra-Banihal rail link: HC

Delhi High Court today observed that the Centre was "sleeping" over the issue of taking a decision based on the recommendations made by an expert panel set up to carry out a review of the controversial 125km-long Katra-Banihal section of the rail link to Kashmir.
"You have been sleeping," a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva said when the Railway Board moved a plea seeking more time to take a decision.
The Railway Board, in its application, said it was unable to take a decision based on the panel's report, filed on February 4, as it was busy with the budget and sought eight weeks time to carry out the exercise.

It said that more time is required to take a decision with respect to the alternative alignment suggested by the panel, which includes E Sreedharan - former chief of DMRC, as they have to take into account issues like cost and work required on ground.
Though the court was not satisfied with the reasons given by the Board, it gave them four weeks time from today to take a decision and inform it.
It had earlier asked the Board to take a decision on the alignment and other issues like cost within four weeks of the panel submitting its report.

The court was hearing a petition by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), through advocates Prashant Bhushan and Pranav Sachdeva, who have alleged that the railways are ignoring the serious concerns raised by the experts regarding the 125-km-long Katra-Banihal section of the rail link to Kashmir.
The petition had alleged that the Railways ignored serious concerns repeatedly raised by various experts and its own officials, including Member (Engineering), on a flawed alignment which most say overlooks the basic human needs of safety, security and comfort while travelling which render the entire project unworkable.
The Qazigund-Katra leg of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project was announced by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002.