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Guwahati, Feb 15: India is very keen to develop the infrastructure of its north-eastern region and it is going that extra mile to fulfil it. To enhance the rail connectivity and infrastructure development in the North-eastern region of India, as many as 59 railway stations would be developed with world class facilities, India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated recently.
Vaishnaw informed that 15 stations each in all divisions of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) are to be developed under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
He further claimed that for the first time, an amount of Rs 1.20 lakh crore has been earmarked for connecting the hilly and border areas. The Gross Budget Allocation for N.F. Railway for the financial year 2023-24 is Rs 10,988.80 crore. It is 13.75 per cent more than the previous year's allotment. The allocation for the north-eastern states is Rs 10,269 crore, which is about Rs 300 crore higher than last year.
In the Union Budget 2023-24 presented by Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament last week allotted 2.4k lakh crore for the development of railway infrastructure in the country.
Indian Railways (IR) is on a mission to connect the northeast with the rest of the country, and keeping this as a priority Bairabi-Sairang Rail Line Project (51.38 km) is about to get completed.
The project is of national significance and will provide seamless connectivity to Mizoram’s state capital, Aizawl (Sairang), with the rest of India, reported Financial Express.
The Bairabi-Sairang rail line will have 130 bridges, 23 tunnels, and four stations namely Kawnpui, Hortoki, Mualkhang, and Sairang. As per reports, the cost of construction from Bairabi to Sairang was estimated at Rs 2384 crores. However, later it was revised to Rs 5021.45 crores. The line is under Indian Railways’ Northeast Frontier zone.
In August 2019, 65 per cent work was completed, and in February 2020, Railway Board Chairman inspected the 51.38 km long rail line project.
In February 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reportedly, the project faced several delays in construction work, and due to lockdowns and lack of labour, the revised deadline for the railway line to Sairang (and the final extension till Mizoram’s capital Aizawl) is March 2023.
In a separate but related development, construction work is going at a fast pace on the Sivok–Rangpo rail line project to connect Sikkim with the rail network of the country, according to the Financial Express report.
From Sivok in West Bengal (WB) to Rangpo in Sikkim, the total length of this line will be 44.96 km. 41.55 km rail line will be in WB, and Sikkim’s share will be 3.41 km. In total, 14 tunnels will be made. The longest tunnel will be 5.27 km. The length of the shortest tunnel will be 538 metres.
An article stated the geographical and logistical challenges in the north-eastern states are quite different from the rest of India. The mountainous terrain is a major bottleneck for developing a network of transportation in the region. Several factors, including the challenging topography, have led to underdevelopment in several sectors, including health, education, infrastructure etc., resulting in slow economic growth. The government has been implementing various infrastructure development projects in the North Eastern States during the last five years. These relate to improving air, rail, road and waterway connectivity.