Assam demands dedicated railway zone for NE

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has demanded that Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) be declared as a dedicated railway zone exclusively for the North Eastern states in this year’s railway budget.

Gogoi, while stressing on the need for “good connectivity from Assam, so critical for the people of the state and also other North Eastern states,” placed the demand during his meeting with Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi in New Delhi.

Presently, parts of eastern Bihar and North Bengal are also included in NFR, which is headquartered at Maligaon in Guwahati.

Gogoi had placed the same demand before former railway minister Mamta Banerjee last year, but the same was not met in the last year’s railway budget.

Gogoi also demanded laying of new railway line connecting Salona to Kumtai and Jorhat to Sivasagar. “I told Trivedi that if a new line is laid between these two sections, the distance between Guwahati and Upper Assam will be considerably reduced,” said Gogoi. Gogoi added that he also urged Trivedi for a new railway line linking Tirap to Lekhapani to help transportation of coal to upcoming Bongaigaon Thermal Power Station.

He also requested the railway minister to initiate steps to set up the wagon manufacturing facility at Amingaon, near Guwahati, which was announced in railway budget of 2010, besides upgradation and modernization of coach workshops at Bongaigaon and Dibrugarh.

Gogoi also demanded introduction of a new daily express train, preferable the Durnoto Express, between Guwahati and Chennai, via Kolkata, and between Guwahati and Mumbai to “cut short the enormous time the existing trains take to travel to southern and western parts of the country”. Gogoi also demanded introduction of a new super fast express train connecting Jorhat-Sivasagar-Moran-Dibrugarh.

Gogoi requested Trivedi for doubling of railway track from New Bongaigaon to Guwahati via Rangiya and Guwahati to Tinsukia via Lumding as well as electrification from Katihar to Guwahati.

Other proposals taken up by the chief minister include modernization and improvement of railway stations at Guwahati, Tinsukia, Jorhat and Bongaigoan, railway level crossing at important unmanned locations across the state and setting up of an integrated freight complex at Changsari, near Guwahati.

Gogoi also wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, requesting him to consider the proposals submitted by the state and for their inclusion in the railway budget.