Gauhati HC slaps notices on railway authorities over loopholes' in broad-gauge line construction

The Gauhati High Court has issued notices to railway authorities for allegedly not adhering to safety norms while constructing a broad-gauge line from Lumding to Silchar in Assam.

Guwahati:The Gauhati High Court has issued notices to railway authorities for allegedly not adhering to safety norms while constructing a broad-gauge line from Lumding to Silchar in Assam. Hearing a public interest litigation filed by the All Barak Youth Students Association, a division bench comprising Chief Justice (Acting) N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Soumitra Saikia gave four weeks to the respondents the Railway Ministry, Railway Board and Northeast Frontier Railway to reply to the notices.

The petition stated that work on conversion of metre-gauge to broad-gauge to connect with Barak Valley, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur, was sanctioned in 1996-97, and declared a national project in 2004. Passenger train services started on the broad-gauge track from November 21, 2015. The PIL claimed that the principal director of audit in his Theme Based Audit Report during the course of the conversion work had warned the railway authorities that construction commenced without adequate geo-technical investigation.

The project shall be derailed due to faulty planning and failure to visualise the soil strata behaviour on the part of the Railways, the petition said, citing the report. The PIL also said that the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) in its report had also indicated a series of major loopholes. The CRS had suggested the Railway administration to engage experts in the field of geo-technology to critically review the status and recommend suitable preventive measures, it added.

However, the railway authorities went ahead without rectifying serious defects in spite of the negative views in the expert report, the PIL alleged. Earlier in the year, massive landslides and mudslides coupled with incessant rain wreaked havoc in Dima Hasao, a picturesque region located between Lumding and Silchar, and all its communication channels were thrown out of gear.

The only rail link connecting Dima Hasao district and Barak Valley, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura with the rest of the country was also washed away. "The people of south Assam and Dima Hasao (are) paying the price for non-compliance with the CRS report the PIL said. "This Hon'ble Court also may be pleased to direct the Railway Board to conduct high-level enquiry to find out as to why CRS safety measures were not implemented prior to plying passenger trains in the hill section," the petition said. (PTI)