Project deadline: March, 2015
Aizawl: The railway extension project from Bairabi to Sairang in Mizoram, though it has already received a green signal from the Union ministry of environment and forests, is yet to make any major headway due to inadequate fund, coupled with Mizoram forest department’s failure to give the eco-clearance.
State level task force chairman Zasanga said the fund released by the central government so far is not adequate to commence major works.
‘While the project has received eco-clearance from the Union ministry, the state environment and forest department is yet to give a nod,’ he added.
The SLTF has requested Mizoram’s lone Lok Sabha member C L Ruala to take necessary steps for early release of fund by the Centre, he said.
The 51.3km railway line project between Bairabi in Kolasib district and Sairang in Aizawl district will cost Rs 2,384.34 crore for execution.
Zasanga said land compensation in Aizawl district has been cleared and the land has been handed over to the contractors.
There is compensation row in Kolasib district which has resulted in discontinuation of fund distribution to the affected land owners.
The state land revenue and settlement has lodged an FIR against fake compensation claimants in Kawnpui police station and the state Anti-Corruption Bureau is investigating into it.
The landmark project of the extension of the vital broad gauge rail link between Bairabi rail terminus on the Mizoram-Assam border and Sairang, a small town 20 km west of Aizawl, is targeted to be completed by March 2015.
However, owing to these several hurdles, the North East Frontier Railway (NEFR) feared that the project would not be completed within the stipulated time.
The original outlay of this project, when the inter-state 51 km Lalabazar-Bairabi mt gauge link was commissioned, was envisaged at Rs 519.34 crore in 1995. It was revised to Rs 2,384.34 crore for a track through the hills and forests spanning 50.9 km in length. (UNI)