Rs.5,338 crore provided for railway infrastructure in northeast

An amount of Rs.5,338 crore has been allocated in the current fiscal for development of railway infrastructure in the northeast, DoNER Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

The amount has been sanctioned for new lines, gauge conversion and doubling in the region, the minister for Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said Rs.3,392 crore was allocated for this purpose in 2013-14, and Rs.5,200 crore in 2014-15.

According to the minister, initiatives to develop railway infrastructure in the northeast include connectivity to all state capitals, unigauge broad gauge network, augmentation of network capacity for handling growth of traffic in future, and expansion of network to unconnected areas.

He said rail line projects taken up in the last three years include a new line from Agartala in Tripura to Akhaura in Bangladesh (15.6 km), a new line from Dimapur to Tizit in Nagaland's Mon district (257 km), patch doubling from Lumding to Hojai in Assam (44.92 km), doubling of tracks from New Bongagigaon to Kamakhya in Assam (142 km), doubling of tracks on the New Bongaigaon-Goalpara-Guwahati route (176 km), and doubling of tracks from Digaru to Hojai in Assam (102 km).