The SMC has also criticised the railway authorities for not handing over the possession of a road land in T P Scheme No 4 (Ashwani Kumar Navagam). The scheme has been approved by the government and is intended to widen the culvert which is currently a traffic bottleneck on the city's main entrance.

Nearly seven lakh people residing in the city's eastern section face hardships because of the non-cooperative attitude of the railway authorities, the letter said.

The culvert at Ashwani Kumar was to be widened by the SMC for which it has deposited the required amount. However, the railways have not started work. The SMC has volunteered to widen the culvert on its own under the railways supervision, but the railways have not responded favourably. The culvert at Ajana could not be widened for the same reasons, the SMC alleged.

Surat railway station was one of the `` dirtiest stations'', the letter said. Though the SMC and other city institutions had shown interest in cleaning the complex, the railway authorities did not respond. The SMC had suggested that some of spots in the station complex could be developed.