SHILLONG: The Assam government has delayed handing over some portion of its land to the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) affected the overall progress of the Azara-Byrnihat railway project.
“There is a forest land at Tetelia area of Assam to be used for the rail work, which is awaiting clearance since it is a reserved forest, thereby affecting the progress of the work,” a Meghalaya government official said on Saturday.
While the work in the Meghalaya portion is progressing smoothly, the delay is from the Assam side, the official added.
The Byrnihat railway project has been pending since 2010 as the Assam government objected to the first alignment of the proposed railway line from Azara to Byrnihat despite having agreed to the same earlier.
The reason cited by Assam was that people will lose paddy fields once the rail line comes up from Azara.
Not finding any other option, the Meghalaya government agreed to the proposal of Assam to construct the railway line from Tetelia in Kamrup district to Byrnihat in Ri Bhoi.
Once the railway line is extended up to Byrnihat, the next step is to extend it further to Shillong.
The survey work from Byrnihat to Shillong has been completed except for a 5 km stretch close to the city, an official with the Transport department informed.
The official said that the Byrnihat-Shillong rail line should be ready by 2020 which is the target set by the Centre to connect all the state capitals of the country with rail line.
There was delay in completing the survey at the 5 km since a new contractor was appointed for the job, the official added.
Meghalaya entered the rail map of the country in November, 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Mendipathar rail line.
There were protests from various pressure groups since the latter part of 1980s against introduction of railway line in Khasi Hills, due to the fear of influx.
The pressure groups have now given conditional support to the rail project provided that the State government adopts a mechanism to check influx.
