Entire NE to be covered by railway network soon
SHILLONG: The Indian Railways plans to bring the whole of Northeastern region in the country’s railway map within the next few years under Prime Minister’s ‘Vision 2020’ programme. ‘’Under the current mandate ‘Vision 2020’ all the NE states will be brought under railway connectivity,’’ Shiv Kumar, General Manager (Construction), NF Railways, told UNI here today. Work has already progressed under the scheme as Tripura’s capital Agartala was connected to Kumarghat in August 2008.
‘’Next we plan to bring Meghalaya into the railway map by connecting Azara in Assam to Byrnihat and from Dudhnoi (Assam) to Mendipatthar,’’ Kumar said. In Nagaland tracks exist upto Dimapur. It would be further extended upto capital Kohima. In Tripura, capital Agartala will be connected to the southernmost tip of Sabroom. Incidentally, Sabroom is adjacent to the Bangladesh port city of Chittagong and railway connectivity will boost trade.
‘’In Manipur tracks will be extended from Jiribam to capital Imphal while in Mizoram tracks will be laid from Bhairabi to Sairang which is just short of capital Aizawl,’’ Mr Kumar added. In the eastern border state of Arunachal Pradesh, capital Itanagar will be connected to Harmuti while the Himalayan state of Sikkim too will not lag behind. Tracks will be laid from Sevoke in neighbouring West Bengal to Rangpo in South Sikkim. ‘’The whole project will take four to five years,’’ Kumar said.
‘’Plans are afoot for largescale guage conversion to facilitate trains like the Rajdhani to run in some stretches of the NE region. Guage conversion will be undertaken in Rangiya, Murkongselek, Lumding, Silchar, Badarpur, Kumarghat and Jiribam,’’ he said. Besides, the NF Railways plans to build another rail cum road bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra in Assam apart from the existing two.
Source: UNI