Capitals of NE states set to be connected to Railway network by 2023

Chairman Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav on Friday said that Indian Railways to connect all the northeast state capitals to its a network by 2023. Capitals of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh have already been connected. Itanagar got connected with New Delhi through direct train service on February 2015.

New Delhi: Aiming to give a major infrastructure boost and to provide better connectivity to the North-East region of the country, Indian Railways to connect all the state capitals to its a network by 2023, informed Chairman Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav, on Friday.

He also stated that the capital investment in the North-East Projects has been doubled in the last 6 years. During 2009-14, the investment in these projects was of Rs 10,610 crores which got increased by 2.6 times, reaching to Rs 27,655 crores in 2014-19.

"Capitals of Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh has already been connected. Itanagar got connected with New Delhi through direct train service on February 2015," said Yadav.

In Manipur, the 111 km long Jiribum-Imphal railway project will be completed by March 2022. In the state of Mizoram, Aizwal through 51 km long Bhairabi Sairang project and Nagaland, through Dimapur-Kohima will be connected to Rail network, which is expected to be completed by March 2023.

The 22 km long Teteliya-Byrnihat project in Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, will be completed by March 2022. While, the capital of Sikkim, Gangtok will be connected by the 44 km long Sivok-Rangpo project which is likely to be completed by December 2022.

The Railway Official also mentioned that the entire Railway network of North-eastern states of 972 kms has been converted to Broad Gauge during 2014-17.

"All North-eastern states, except for Sikkim, is connected by Railway network. Sikkim to be connected by December 2022," he added.

The tunnelling output has also been doubled in the last 5 years as 62.8 km tunnelling was done in this period as compared to 31.7 km during 2009-14.

While explaining about the 5 km long Bogibeel Rail cum Road bridge, Yadav mentioned that it has brought North and South Assam closer by shortening the rail travel distance between Naharlagun and Dibrugarh by more than 700 km, thereby reducing the travelling time from 24 to 5 hours.