“Why Was Jamshedpur Ignored?”: RYSS Questions 10-Year Local Railway Infrastructure Neglect

Jamshedpur: The Rail Yatri Sangharsh Samiti has resolved to keep a close watch on whether the South Eastern Railway authorities are keeping their promise to permanently eradicate the systemic delay of passenger trains at Tatanagar.

The RYSS held a review meeting at the residential office of Jamshedpur West MLA Saryu Roy on Thursday afternoon. Attendees evaluated the ongoing agitation against the chronic delays of passenger trains in the Jamshedpur region. The discussion centred on the current situation after the General Manager (GM) of South Eastern Railway accepted the core demands of the movement. The committee formally thanked the Railway GM alongside the social, cultural, commercial, and political outfits that actively backed the protest.

The committee decided that the Rail Yatri Sangharsh Samiti will remain active and monitor the implementation of the Railway GM’s directive mandating that passenger trains must not be halted to give clearance to freight trains.

The forum also highlighted the GM’s instruction to the DRM to appoint a Public Relations Inspector. The Samiti will closely track this official’s operations and continue its efforts to permanently eradicate the systemic delay of passenger trains.

The committee took serious note of the Railway GM’s admission that no significant infrastructure development has taken place around Jamshedpur over the last decade. Members questioned why Jamshedpur faced such step-motherly treatment when trillions of rupees were spent across India since 2016–17 to modernize railway infrastructure and stations.

The committee raised critical questions: “Why did the GM and the local MP fail to draft the billion-rupee development projects—which they are boasting about now—over the last ten years? Who is responsible for this negligence?” The panel noted that if these structural upgrades had been completed on time, passengers would not be suffering from daily train delays today.