SILCHAR, July 18 - The members of the Citizens� Forum here have warned that if the NF Railway fails to keep its promise to start passenger trains on the Silchar-Lumding route from August this year, they will be compelled to initiate contempt of court proceedings against the NF Railway, the State of Assam represented by the Chief Secretary and the Union of India represented by the Secretary of the Ministry of Railways for violation of the order dated January 27, 2014 given by the Gauhati High Court for a PIL (20/2013).
Shyamal Kanti Deb, president of the forum, and advocate Dhruba Kumar Saha, joint secretary of the forum, said that in a reply to a PIL filed by them against the Secretary, Ministry of Railways, Government of India, Chief Secretary, Government of Assam, and General Manager, NF Railway, on February 1, 2013, the court directed the Railway Ministry to wrap up the gauge conversion works on the Silchar-Lumding route by March 15 this year.
Saha said a notice was served to the above parties by them on behalf of the forum on June 12, stating that the target fixed by the NF Railway for the commissioning of the conversion of the railway line was March 15 this year. Further, referring to the inspection by the Commissioner, Railway Safety (CRS), on June 22-23, Saha said that there has been no update on the report as yet. �We are dismayed to witness that barring some goods trains arriving here occasionally, nothing has been done till date. Hence, the recipients of the notice should let us know why contempt of court proceedings should not be moved against them,� Saha said.
On the other hand, speaking about safety measures and speed limit, Shymal Kanti Deb said that the speed limit will be approximately 90 Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS), the maximum load that can be sustained by one square centimetre of rail, due to which the trains will not be able to pick up a speed of 130 km per hour.
