Sushmita Dev Urges Railway Minister to Fast-Track Rs 15,000-Crore Lanka–Silchar Broad Gauge Line

A CORRESPONDENT 

SILCHAR: Elaborating the current uncertainty in the hill section of the NF Railway, the Rajya Sabha MP from West Bengal, Sushmita Dev, sought the intervention of the Union Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw, for early implementation of the proposed Lanka-Silchar broad gauge line. Dev, who met Minister Vaishnaw at his office, said that the final location survey for the proposed 208-km-long Lanka-Silchar via Chandranathpur had already been completed. Dev later informed this correspondent that Vaishnaw told her that since the project cost of the proposed new broad gauge line was estimated at Rs 15,000 crores, the Railway Board alone cannot approve it and it requires Cabinet nod. However, the railway minister assured her that the project would get the Cabinet approval at an early date, she claimed.

Earlier, the Rajya Sabha MP informed the Union Minister that for the last few weeks, train movement in the hill section had been majorly affected as a 200-metre portion of the railway track at New Harangajao station was badly damaged. Despite extensive earth filling and stone pitching operations, train movement would take a few more weeks to normalise. Sushmita Dev informed the minister that train movement faces such disruption every year during the rainy season and hence an alternative route between Silchar and Lanka via Chandranathpur seemed to be the only solution.

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