GUWAHATI, July 28 - As part of the effort to provide easier road connectivity in Assam, the State government and the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) have jointly identified 24 projects for the construction of road overbridges (ROBs) at various places across the State and the work on it will be taken up shortly.
This decision was taken recently during a meeting between Chief Secretary Alok Kumar and NFR's general manager Sanjive Roy, said Pranav Jyoti Sharma, chief public relations officer of NFR.
�PWD Assam has already awarded tender on a single entity and cost-sharing basis for two ROBs, one each at Basugaon and Lanka, for which the railway component of the fund has already been sanctioned in the current budget. At the same time, as many as seven DPRs are also in an advanced state of completion and which are likely to be submitted by the State government to NFR by August for which the Railways will propose for out of turn sanction from Railway Board. In addition to this, another 15 ROBs have been proposed during this current year for which DPRs are to be proposed by PWD and sent to the Railways,� he said.
Sharma added that a mechanism has also been put in place for a joint survey of busy level crossings, to be conducted by the NFR and the State PWD.
�ROBs will also be proposed in such locations later after assessment of feasibility and submission of drawings by the State PWD to the Railways,� he added.
Coaches for women: Meanwhile, to provide better safety and security to women passengers who travel by passenger trains either alone or with minors, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has for the first time started earmarking a portion of the SLR coaches for female commuters.
The portion reserved for women passengers has been marked with a pink colour.
�This special colour will help women passengers easily identify the coach in the platform even during rush hours,� said Sharma.
SLR coaches with pink coloured ones for lady passengers have been placed in the trains bearing numbers 55817/55818, 55803/55804 and 55809/55810 which operate between New Bongaigaon and Guwahati.
�Similar earmarking has also been done in passenger train no. 55895/55896 which runs between Rangiya and Murkongselek. In some trains, depending on the nature of the coach, the same has been earmarked both for lady passengers as well as Divyangjan,� said Sharma.
