RailEnquiry

GUWAHATI: Union railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal gave the landlocked northeast (NE) four new trains. The railway ministry is also set to commission the first rail link to Arunachal Pradesh and is working on putting another NE state, Manipur, on the railway map of the country soon. Two years ago, Tripura became the third state to be included in the railway network after Assam and Nagaland, and Meghalaya will soon feature in it. Bansal on Tuesday also proposed a survey for taking the rail link further into Nagaland from Dimapur to Tizit. All the four new trains are weeklies - Jodhpur-Kamakhya (Guwahati) Express via Degana, Ratangarh; Kamakhya (Guwahati)-Anand Vihar Express via Katihar, Barauni, Sitapur Cantt, Moradabad; Kamakhya (Guwahati)-Bangalore AC Express and Rajendra Nagar Terminus (Patna)-New Tinsukia Express via Katihar. In addition, the Guwahati-Ernakulam Express has been extended to Thiruvananthapuram while the Lalgarh-Guwahati Express has been extended to New Tinsukia. Bansal has also proposed to take up a track-doubling project between New Bongaigaon and Kamakhya via Rangia after obtaining necessary approvals. Presenting the railway budget for 2013-14, he said that work on the new railway line project to connect the state of Manipur is on in full swing. The minister said that the gauge conversion work on the Lumding-Silchar and Rangia-Murkongselek lines has been put on the fast track. Bansal, however, remained silent on completion of one of the national projects - Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra in Dibrugarh district - that has passed through several stumbling blocks.

The wagon-manufacturing unit proposed to be set up at Amingaon near here as per the 2011-12 budget at an estimated cost of Rs 188.5 crore is yet to take off and has been given the first allocation of Rs 2 crore for the next fiscal.

While the last budget (2012-2013) had nothing for the region, the 2011-2012 budget included several infrastructure proposals, including a rail industrial park at New Bongaigaon and mechanized laundry unit and a Multi Functional Complex (MFC) with budget hotels at Kamakhya, which are yet to become realities.