MENDIPATHAR: Mendi-pathar and several other villages in North Garo Hills are all set to enter the record books as the area to welcome the first ever railway line in Meghalaya with ’90 percent of the work’ for the project having already been completed.
Work is going on in full swing in different stretches of the 19-kilometre-long railway line that would connect Mendipathar to Dudhnoi in Assam. A visit to the area shows that the project is finally reaching completion as most of the major works have been taken care of and all that remains is final touches here and there.
Speaking to The Shillong Times, engineer of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) Manjit Bora said that 90 per cent work had been completed and it would take at most another two months to complete the project.
At the moment, the NFR is working on the goods yard which is to be constructed in the Mendipathar railway station.
Bora added that the profiling of the project would take around 20 days and commission of railway safety test was likely to be done on April 25.
Meanwhile, even before the Railway starts its operation, the residents of Mendipathar have found a way of earning their livelihood from the project. The residents are earning a decent income by selling the huge quantity of rocks that have been excavated from the stretch of the railway project to the people of neighbouring Assam.
The railway link is expected to help the people of Mendipathar, especially rubber farmers, to ship their goods to and fro to Assam and other states with much ease and less expenditure.
Around 65.09 hectares have already been handed over to the authorities of the Northeast Frontier Railways for the 19.47 km broad gauge single line.
It is learnt that the initial cost for the project was estimated at Rs. 86.22 crore. It was later revised to Rs. 144 crore.
A total of 39 bridges would dot the track.