RailEnquiry

Silchar : The resumption of train services along the 184km metre gauge track connecting Barak Valley districts and Tripura with the country's rail network, damaged by landslides since June 24, is likely to be delayed. On June 28, Northeast Frontier Railway's general manager Ranjit Singh Virdi said in Guwahati the stalled train services in this section would resume within 25 days. However, railway sources are doubtful whether it would be possible to resume services within this time span. The main impediment for the early resumption of the train services along this route is tunnel 17, which was badly hit by the landsides on the Barail hills. The 17km stretch between Dima Hasao's Lower Haflong and Migrengdisa stations suffered the maximum damage. Sources said this 45.26-metre tunnel was pockmarked with craters caused by the huge streams of landslide slush that cascaded down from the Barail hills. The principal chief engineer of the NF Railways, Tribhuvan Gupta, inspected this tunnel on June 28 and recommended quick repair work before regular train journeys on this rail route resumed. The repair work on this tunnel, along with the damaged railway tracks at some places on this hill section route, will require at least Rs 10 crore. A senior railway official confirmed today that incessant rain in Dima Hasao district for five days at a stretch since June 24 has interrupted the progress of the civil engineering work at the two new tunnels (7 and 10). This will straddle the under-construction project for the upgrade of the 108-year-old metre gauge railway line into broad gauge. The foundation stone of this improvement scheme was laid by the then Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gouda in January 1996. The cost of the broad gauge project has now ballooned to Rs 2,800 crore from Rs 648 crore in 1996. The official said the completion of the construction of the these two new tunnels, the first one near Mahur railway station with a length of 1,687 metres and the other near Jatinga railway station with a total length of 3,235 metres ' is a challenging task for the authorities. While only 46 per cent of the tunnel work in number 7 has been completed, 38 per cent work in the other tunnel has been completed. The pace of work is quite slow and railway engineers are doubtful about the completion of work before the time-schedule for commissioning in December next year.