Railways to connect all northeastern state capitals by 2020


Posted on 17th Mar 2015 11:31 am by mohit kumar

Silchar (Assam), March 16 (IANS) The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), which is building rail infrastructure in the region, has targeted to connect all its eight state capitals by 2020, a senior official has said.

"We would connect all the state capitals of the eight northeastern states by railway link within 2020," NFR general manager (construction) Rakesh Kumar Singh told reporters here.

He said: "Mizoram capital Aizawl and Manipur capital Imphal would be connected by railway network by 2018 and 2019 respectively. The capitals of the remaining states would be linked by 2020 and the works are on to achieve the target."

Tripura's capital Agartala already connected by railway networks, even though line between Assam's Silchar-Agartala is meter gauge.

Agartala came up on the country's rail map in 2008. Currently, northeastern states have around 2,700 km railway line comprising meter gauge and broad gauge (BG) lines, officials said.

Singh, who was leading a 45-member NFR team, arrived in Silchar railway station from Guwahati on Sunday afternoon with the first nine-bogie railway trial inspection train, which left for Guwahati on Monday.

On Friday, the team said it successfully carried out trial run of a diesel engine from Lumding to Silchar on the newly-converted broad gauge (BG) line. The regular train service on the new BG line would be conducted from April after the clearance of Railway Safety Commissioner.

The total length of Lumding-Silchar BG line is 220 km and it consists of 17 tunnels (with longest one being 3.235 km long), 79 major bridges, 340 minor bridges, 28 railway stations and four halt stations.

The NFR general manager (construction) said now the Silchar-Agartala railway track would be converted from meter gauge to BG by March next year.

The foundation of the much-delayed gauge conversion project -- Lumding to Silchar and Silchar to Agartala -- was laid by the then prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda in Silchar in 1996.

In 2004, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh declared the project a national one.

The railways faced severe criticism for the delay in completing the Rs.5,185-crore project that is considered to be a lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, during his budget speech in the parliament on February 26, said the Indian Railways was committed to provide rail connectivity to all the northeastern states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Nov 29, 2014 flagged off a train between Meghalaya's Mendipathar and Guwahati, a distance of 131 km, and laid the foundation stone for a 51.38 km-long new broad gauge railway line between Bhairabi and Sairang in Mizoram.

On February 20, Modi flag off the first weekly air-conditioned express train service between Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh in Itanagar.



 

Did you know?Explore Trending and Topic pages for more stories like this.
0 Like 0 Dislike
Previous news Next news
Other news

Bowl short to Australia at your risk: Steve Smith tells India

Sydney, March 24 (IANS) Ahead of their high-voltage semi-final clash against India, Australia's

Bigg Boss 18: Did Vivian Dsena flop in Bigg Boss 18? Housemates gave him the tag of 'least favorite'

Just a day after the grand premiere of Salman Khan's show 'Bigg Boss 18', the viewers of the show

Fridge Cooling Low but Electricity Bill High? Avoid These Common Mistakes and Save Up to 25% on Power Costs

As temperatures continue to soar during the peak summer season, refrigerators have become one of

Corona havoc in UP: more than 27 thousand cases surfaced on Saturday, 120 died

On Saturday, there was a slight decrease in the number of corona infections in UP. While 27426 ca

PM Modi spoke in a webinar on Budget- Our work on green growth founded the foundation stone of the bright future of future generations

After the budget, PM Narendra Modi addressed the first webinar on green development. In his addre

24 opposition MPs sat on dharna overnight: made a food roster from curd-rice to halwa; TMC made dinner and DMK made breakfast

24 MPs, who were suspended demanding discussion in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, sat on a dharna in

Kangana Ranaut: Deepa Mehta got into trouble for taking a jibe at Kangana's views on the Israel-Gaza war, the actress got angry

Kangana Ranaut, popularly known as 'Panga Girl' in Bollywood, is trying to woo the audience by pl

Bitcoin Price India INR: The trend of decline in bitcoin continues, the price reached here after breaking 55 thousand rupees

Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, has seen many bad phases since the beginning of

PM Modi's assets increased by 26 lakhs in a year, PMO told - Gandhinagar land has been donated

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assets have increased by Rs 26 lakh in one year. This came to the

Yogi Adityanath: Descendants of Aurangzeb are driving rickshaws in Kolkata, said CM Yogi – messing with culture is not tolerated

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath termed love jihad as a planned attack on Indian culture and warned

Sign up to write
Sign up now if you have flare of writing..
Login   |   Register
Follow Us
Indyaspeak @ Facebook Indyaspeak @ Twitter Indyaspeak @ Pinterest RSS



Play Free Quiz and Win Cash