Assam's Barak Valley to be on broad gauge map soon

Assam's Barak Valley will soon be on the country's broad gauge map, realising a dream of the people living there, with the Indian Railways on Friday successfully carried out trial run of a diesel engine from Lumding to Silchar.

The passenger trains on newly-converted broad gauge line between the Lumding-Silchar via Badarpur is expected to run from April, said a North East Frontier Railway source.

The North East Frontier Railway has undertaken a mega block in view of the gauge conversion project from October 1, 2014 and it is likely to continue till March 31.

"We have run a diesel engine today (Friday) on trial basis. It reached Silchar from Lumding. The basic objective is to ascertain if everything is in place and there is no technical problem in running regular trains on the tracks," the source said in Guwahati.

Another North East Frontier Railway official said: "There is a plan to run goods train on the tracks in next few days. However, we are hopeful that passenger trains will run on the tracks in mid April."

The officials said all works has been completed on the tracks, barring a few places where the works are on in war footing and is likely to be completed before March 31.

The total length of Lumding-Silchar broad gauge line is 210 km and it consists of 17 tunnels.

The ambitious railway project, which is also a national project, has 79 major bridges, 340 minor bridges, 28 railway stations and four halt stations.