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

Good news: India's direct tax collection breaks records, reaches a high of Rs 14 lakh crore

There is good news for the Indian economy. This time India's net direct tax collection has broken

IPL 2020: Delhi changed its name and changed the fate

The Delhi Capitals, yearning for a title in the IPL, defeated the Rajasthan Royals by 13 runs in

Indiana Jones 5 Review: 'Indy' Gets a grand farewell, Ford's innings end in 'Indiana Jones' Franchise

With the action-adventure film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the franchise's popular cha

IIT Bombay: Relief from Supreme Court to a student suffering from a learning disability, orders given to IIT Bombay to give a degree

In an important decision, the Supreme Court issued an order to IIT Bombay to hand over his degree

Pakistani players dominate in ICC Awards: Babar Azam and Rizwan in ODIs and T20s, Player of the Year Shaheen

ICC has announced the names of the best players of 2021. Pakistani players dominated this award.

Blast outside Somalia Education Ministry: 2 cars exploded, 100 killed; over 300 injured

An explosion took place outside the education ministry in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. So f

Does the Bangladesh government have a problem with Hindus or ISKCON, what is the matter?

The issue of the arrest of Chinmay Prabhu, associated with ISKCON in Bangladesh, has become so bi

Vande Bharat Train: Trial run of Chennai-Mysore Vande Bharat Express from today, here are the specialties of the train

Vande Bharat Express is expanding rapidly across the country. Now South India is also going to ge

Indonesia Oil Depot Fire: Fierce fire in oil depot in Indonesia, 17 killed; evacuation of thousands

A massive fire broke out at a fuel storage depot in the Indonesian capital on Friday, killing at

MI Vs PBKS in IPL today: Mumbai, Punjab's middle order failed in the fourth match of 160 runs in 4 matches

The 17th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) will be held in Chennai on Friday between

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