New Delhi: Railway projects in the Northeast got a fillip after the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government assumed charge at the Centre in May last year.
Many stalled projects of the region are expected to be made operational soon, one of them being the Lumding-Silchar line.
According to highly placed sources, the Railways will add another feather to its cap, when the 482.73 km Lumding-Silchar line which was approved in 1996-97, would become operational by March this year.
The Standing Committee report on Railways in May too had stated that the line sanctioned in 1996-97 had missed the target of completion. The project was scheduled to be completed on December 2014, but had to be extended to December 2016.
The Committee in its report had said, “Spilling over of these projects for longer period of time would lead to frustration among the people of the North-East who are already under-served in respect of railway connection”.
The very month the new Government assumed office, it gave top most priority to the Railways. The government has been giving stress on connecting the Seven Sisters with the rest of the country through rail links.
In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Nagaland has announced a package of Rs 28,000 crore for the establishment of 14 new railway lines in the Northeast.
The NDA government, meanwhile, has also allocated a fund of Rs 345 crore for construction of lines of strategic importance.
According to sources, the Harmuti-Naharlagun train link connecting Arunachal Pradesh would be operational by end of January or beginning of February. The 23-km rail link between Naharlagun near Itanagar to Harmuti in Assam was completed in April 2014. After few days, the train service was suspended on the route following security reason arising out of local issues.
Sources said the issue has been resolved after the intervention of the Prime Minister and the inauguration will take place after the green signal from the PMO.
Meghalaya was for the first time connected with rail network after the Prime Minister in November last year inaugurated the Mendipathar railway station.
According to a senior Railway official, who relinquished office recently while talking to media had said till December, the Prime Minister had met the Chairman, Railway Board more than 15 times and discussed about the projects being undertaken for the Northeast region.
He said the present Government was always open for new suggestions. “If the proposal is feasible, then it is discussed and there have been examples when the execution of work has been authorized to the concerned official.”
He also said after the completion of the Lumding-Silchar line, work would be expedited on the Silchar-Agartala line. Taking into consideration the difficult geographical area, heavy machines for construction could only be transported to Silchar by Goods train.
The work on the international link between Agartala and Akhaura in Bangladesh was expected to begin within a month, the official added.
Other important project of the North East Region is the 510.33 km Rangiya-Murkongselek project which would have the Bogibeel rail bridge built across the river Brahmaputra in the Dibrugarh district. The 4.94km bridge is one of the longest river bridges in the country and has both the rail and road link.
Besides, the 125 km Jiribam-Tupul and Tupul-Imphal line, the 44.39 km Sivok-Rangpo and the 88 km Dimapur-Kohima are some of the important projects. (UNI)