Rail link to NE states

The BJP-led government of Narendra Modi must be applauded for the relentless focus it has kept on improving the railway connectivity in the Northeastern region, which had remained badly neglected during successive Congress regimes at the Centre since independence. In fact, while experts including historians and economists always wail about Punjab and the western frontier when discussing Partition, very few can recall and realise that railway and road connectivity to Assam and the Northeast had practically remained cut off for close to two years when East Pakistan was created in 1947. The younger generations of present-day Assam on the other hand will refuse to believe if told that the people of Assam had to resort to agitations in order to press the Centre for converting the state's metre gauge railway track of the British era into broad gauge. While the Modi government has, since taking over in 2014, laid maximum emphasis on improving railway connectivity in the region by speeding up projects that were practically lying neglected without any significant fund allocation, railway officials on Saturday have expressed optimism that capitals of three Northeastern states – that of Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland — will find place in the country's railway map by March 2023. While Tripura capital Agartala and Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar were put on the railway map and were connected by direct trains with the national capital in 2014 and 2016 respectively, Meghalaya too found a place in the country's railway map when Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the Mendipathar railway station in the Garo Hills in November 2014. It is encouraging to hear that construction of the railway tracks Imphal and Aizawl is progressing at a fast pace, though Covid-19 has suddenly brought things to a grinding halt in the past few months. Despite that tunnelling work in the Jiribam-Imphal track has already achieved over 90 per cent completion, while that of the major bridges is also close to 45 per cent now. Likewise, the Bairabi-Sairang project, which will link Aizawl has also achieved 88 per cent completion in tunnelling and earthwork, though work on major bridges are lagging much behind. The Kohima project on the other hand is lagging behind due to land acquisition issues which are yet to be settled by the state government, while project working conditions related to security environment, frequent hindrances by locals and limited working season have also affected the progress. It has indeed been a long journey since 1881, when the railways first arrived in the region and the Assam Railway & Trading Company laid the 92-km Dibru-Sadiya railway connecting Dibrugarh with Margherita for evacuation of coal and tea for dispatch to Kolkata and beyond by steamers on the Brahmaputra.