16.5.18

Railways Plans ₹40,000 crore projects to improve connectivity in NE

Indian Railways has lined up several projects worth at least ₹40,000 crore to connect capital cities of five North Eastern states and areas bordering China, Myanmar and Bangladesh with the rest of the country.

The national transporter is planning to construct the rail links to the capital cities of Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Nagaland in the next two years.

The projects include laying over 1,500 km of rail lines and several engineering marvels such as India’s longest double decker rail-cum-road bridge, one of the longest tunnels in the country and the world’s tallest pillar-based rail bridge.

India will also set up new rail links with Myanmar and Bangladesh in the coming years through these rail lines in the border states of north east.

Railways has also planned a 180-km railway line in Arunachal Pradesh that will provide accessibility right up to the China border in Tawang, and another rail line from Imphal in Manipur to Moreh at the Myanmar border. A rail link connecting Agartala in Tripura and Bangladesh is under construction.

While Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are already connected by rail, the capitals of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland are not.

Railways is also constructing a 111-km rail line from Jiribam in Manipur, located at the Assam border, to connect Imphal in Manipur.

Railways is also connecting Agartala in Tripura to Bangladesh which will reduce the travel time between Tripura and Kolkata to less than 10 hours from the existing 24 hours.

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