Mendipathar project figures in interim rail budget
NEW DELHI: To match with rail expansion of next door China, Arunachal Pradesh’s capital Itanagar will be connected with rail network this financial year while Meghalaya will figure in the country’s rail map with Dudhnoi-Mehendipathar new railway line getting completed next month.
Presenting the interim budget for four months in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge said that connecting Northeast with new rail lines has been the focus of his Government.
Kharge said two premium trains – Kamakhya-New Delhi AC Express (Weekly) via Chhapra and Varanasi, and Kamakhya-Chennai AC Express (Weekly) via Malda and Howrah – will be introduced in the coming fiscal.
“I am happy to inform that as a result of additional financial support provided to Railways at the instance of the Prime Minister, we are now on course to convert the strategically important 510 km long Rangiya- Murkongselek metre gauge line into broad gauge within this financial year,” he said.
Once completed, the railway line will be helpful for the Defence forces to transport men and machine to the Sino-Indian border in Arunachal Pradesh.
The capital of Arunanchal Pradesh would soon be on rail map in this financial year, as Harmuti-Naharlagun newline is expected to be commissioned shortly, he said in his speech. A daily passenger train connecting Dekargaon (Tezpur in Assam) to Naharlagun (Itanagar) will also be launched after completion of a new line, he said.
Meghalaya is also all set to come on the Railway map as Dudhnoi (Assam)-Mehendipathar (Meghalaya) new line is getting completed by March 2014.
The rail service on this line is likely to begin from April.
Last month, a member of Planning Commission, VK Chaturvedi, who visited the site to inspect and review the progress of the 19.7 km broad-gauge railway line and station at Mendipathar, expressed happiness over the progress of the project.
The North East MPs Forum, meanwhile, criticized the rail budget since it did not mention about the 10 national projects which were there during the last year’s budget. The Forum for the last three years has been demanding rail network in the region which the Centre is not heeding, they said. But both the MPs from Meghalaya — Vincent H Pala (Lok Sabha) and Ms Wansuk Syiem (Rajya Sabha) welcomed the Rail budget. “For the first time the Hill State will find place in country’s rail map,” they said.
