Aizawl, October 20 (IANS). Mizoram’s Aizawl city will be the fourth capital city of the Northeast to come under the railway network in the next nine months. Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) is laying 51.38 km long new broad gauge track up to Sairang.
Top officials of Mizoram government shared this information on Sunday.
A senior official said NFR General Manager Arun Kumar Choudhary, during a meeting with state Chief Minister Lalduhoma, told that the 51.38 km new line between Bhairabi (near Hailakandi district of Assam) and Sairang (near Aizawl) will be constructed next year. It is expected to be completed by July.
A senior NFR official said the Rs 8,213.72 crore Bairabi-Sairang railway project is now in advanced stage.
Assam’s main city Guwahati (adjacent to the capital Dispur), Tripura’s capital Agartala and Arunachal Pradesh’s Naharlagun (adjacent to the capital city Itanagar) have been on the railway network for many years.
NFR Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Kapinjal Kishore Sharma said that the Bairabi-Sairang project, once completed, will prove to be a game-changer in terms of communication and commerce for the people of Mizoram.
He said that economical and environment friendly railway services will have a positive impact on almost all the development works of the state.
“More than 93 per cent of the physical work of the Bairabi-Sairang railway project has been completed,” the CPRO told IANS. The 51.38 km long route has four stations – Hortoki, Kawanpui, Mualkhang and Sairang. The Bairabi and Sairang railway project has been divided into four sections. It is divided into – Bairabi-Hortoki, Hortoki-Kawanpui, Kawanpui-Mualkhang, and Mualkhang-Sairang.”
Sharma said that the 17.38 km long Bhairabi-Hortoki section has been completed and was commissioned in July and the train service on it has started from August.
The railway project includes 48 tunnels in difficult terrain. The total length of the tunnels is 12,853 metres, out of which 12,807 meters of tunneling work has already been completed.
There will be a total of 55 major bridges and 87 minor bridges in this project. The construction work of the tallest pillar of the project near Sairang station has also been completed.
The height of this ghat is 104 meters – which is 42 meters more than Qutub Minar. The project also includes five road over bridges and six road under bridges.
NFR spokesperson said that there are many challenges in the implementation of this project. Such as very short working season due to very heavy and long (more than five months) monsoon, very difficult and hilly terrain amidst dense forests, poor accessibility, non-availability of construction materials and skilled labor in Mizoram. However, NFR is making every effort to fulfill its commitment to complete the project early
A senior Mizoram government official said the Bairabi-Sairang railway project is a ‘national project’ which, once completed, will prove to be a valuable heritage not only for Mizoram but for the nation.
He said the new railway line from Bairabi to Sairang was approved by the Central Government in 2008-2009 as a national project at an initial cost of Rs 2,384.34 crore.
Work on the project began in 2015.
On August 23 last year, 24 workers died when an under-construction railway bridge of the Bairabi-Sairang railway project collapsed. At that time the construction of a railway bridge was going on over the Kurung River.
–IANS
AKS/CBT
