After a two-decade wait, Assam's Barak Valley finally gets broad gauge rail connectivity

The first passenger train from Silchar to Guwahati will ply on the newly converted Silchar-Lumding section

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A wait of almost two decades for the people of South Assam (Barak Valley) to have broad-gauge rail connectivity has finally come to an end as Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu today flagged off the first passenger train service on the newly converted Lumding-Silchar rail route. The train would run between Silchar and Guwahati, via Haflong and Lumding, and would cover the distance of 380 km in about 12 hours.

While flagging off the train, Prabhu said rail connectivity to Northeastern states has been made a ‘mission item’ by the present government and an all time high budget of Rs 5,200 crore has been earmarked for implementation of various railways projects in the region for the year 2014-15.

He said the railways have been commissioning about 133 km broad-gauge track every year in the Northeastern region in last 4-5 years. In 2014-15, a record was made when about 450 km of lines were commissioned. This year again, it is all set to achieve a new record of commissioning of about 550 km of broad-gauge lines in this region.

Prabhu said the railways was working expeditiously to connect all capitals of Northeastern states with railway connectivity.  Earlier Itanagar, the state capital of Arunachal Pradesh, was brought under the railway map.  The works were progressing as per target and Agartala, the capital of Tripura, said Prabhu, is all set to be on broad-gauge by March, 2016. Along with this, the gauge conversion of Kathakal-Bhairabi (Mizoram) and Arunachal-Jiribam (Manipur) sections will also be completed and these two states will also come on broad gauge map of the country.

The 210 km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was sanctioned in the year 1996-97 at an initial cost of Rs.648 crore. Commencement of passenger train service from Silchar to Lumding marks the completion of Phase-I of this project. Insurgency and hostile terrain had delayed the completion of the project extensively over the years. The completion of the project was vital to bring Agartala in the broad gauge map of the country.

The ‘mega block’ for the Phase-1, that is, Lumding-Silchar section (210 km) was taken from October 1, 2014 for 6 months. The formation works and track linking works were completed and engine rolling upto New Haflong (100 Km) was done on December 1, 2014 and subsequently upto Silchar on March 13, 2015. The first goods train was flagged off by the minister on March 27. Thereafter, more than 155 goods train have plied in the section.

The Phase-2 of the total project consists of gauge conversion of Badarpur-Kumarghat (118 km) and finger lines Arunachal-Jiribam (50 Km), Baraigram-Dullabcherra (29 km) and Karimganj-Mahishasan including Karimganj bye pass line (13.50 km). This phase will be completed by 31.03.2016 for which mega block has already been taken from 01.10.2015 for six months. The current estimated cost of the entire project is around Rs 6,000 crores.