By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 8: The Tetelia-Byrnihat railway line has remained a non-starter in Meghalaya but has made good progress in the neighbouring state with almost 75 per cent of the physical construction work being completed in the section in Assam.
No work has been taken up in Meghalaya due to continued protests against the railway project by politicians and pressure groups over apprehensions of influx and risks to the indigenous communities of the state.
In addition to the Tetelia-Byrnihat project, the proposed Byrnihat-New Shillong railway project also remains on paper with the state government yet to make up its mind on whether to go ahead with the two projects or advise the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to scrap them.
Apart from North Garo Hills, the Indian Railways has not been able to make any progress in Meghalaya. Pressure groups here have made it clear that they can discuss the railway projects only after the implementation of the Inner Line Permit or any other similar mechanism to protect the indigenous communities of the state.
As per documents available with The Shillong Times, the Tetelia-Byrnihat railway line will be 21.50 km long of which 19.25 km will be in Assam and only 2.25 km will be in Meghalaya.
As part of the project, seven major bridges will be constructed, the longest of which will be 350.5 metres. Six tunnels, measuring a cumulative length of 3.733 km, will be constructed. The longest tunnel will have a length of 1.760 km and there will be two railway stations on the route.
According to the documents, the balance work in the Assam section will be completed by December 2022.
The railway station building at Kamalajari in Assam has already been commissioned.
With regard to the Byrnihat-Shillong railway line, the documents show that the total length of the project is 108.40 km. There will be a total of 100 bridges on the route the longest of which will be 701 metres.
There will 10 stations on the proposed route which will cover Byrnihat- Sohkhwai- Lailad- Umsong- Umar- Nongsder- Kyrdemkulai- Umroi- Umpling and end at New Shillong.
The proposed project will have 31 tunnels, covering a total length of 39.06 km. As much as 36.03 per cent of total route will be through tunnels. The longest tunnel is proposed to be 4.14 km in length.