By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 4: The long-pending dream of rail connectivity reaching the Khasi-Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya may take a small but significant step forward, with the Northeast Frontier Railway planning to begin the preliminary survey for the proposed 135-km Chaparmukh–Jowai new broad-gauge line as early as 2026 if local opposition does not derail the process once again.
NFR sources said that the Chaparmukh–Jowai new line project was finally included in the list of sanctioned works in the 2024-25 railway budget, ending years of uncertainty.
However, no firm date for starting even the preliminary survey has been fixed because of the sensitive associated with the railway projects in the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region.
“If everything remains calm and no fresh agitation erupts, the survey teams may be able to enter the field sometime in 2026,” a senior NFR official said on condition of anonymity.
The Chaparmukh–Jowai line, once completed, will provide the shortest rail link between central Assam and Jowai. The alignment is expected to pass through several strategically located towns and villages such as Bhoksong, Rajagaon, Baithalangso, Jengkha, Kherani and Umrangso (in Assam’s Dima Hasao district) before entering Meghalaya and terminating at Jowai.
Meghalaya, particularly the Khasi-Jaintia Hills region, remains one of the last major pockets in India with virtually no railway network. The only operational railway line in the state is the short Mendipathar–Guwahati section in North Garo Hills, inaugurated in 2014.
Successive attempts to introduce railways into the Khasi and Jaintia Hills — including the abandoned Tetelia–Byrnihat project and the stalled Byrnihat–Shillong line — have been stopped by pressure groups, political parties, and traditional institutions citing fears of large-scale influx of outsiders, threat to tribal land, culture and demographic balance.
Despite assurances from the Conrad K. Sangma-led MDA Government that no railway project will be imposed without public consensus, little visible progress has been made on the ground.
A high-level committee on railways, aimed to evolve a “Meghalaya model” of rail development with adequate safeguards for indigenous communities, has not met even once since it was constituted.
Civil society groups accuse the state government of quietly facilitating the Centre’s agenda, while the government insists it is still in dialogue with stakeholders.
