Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge Line Project status
If the fate of Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge hangs in balance, so is the fate of Rs 4,444 crore Silchar-Jiribam-Tupul project. Agitations and demonstrations by various student and youth organizations as well as opposition parties along with public outcry over the vital rail connectivity to Manipur could not shake the authorities to act and accelerate the pace of construction work.
If the fate of Silchar-Lumding Broad Gauge hangs in balance, so is the fate of Rs 4,444 crore Silchar-Jiribam-Tupul project. Agitations and demonstrations by various student and youth organizations as well as opposition parties along with public outcry over the vital rail connectivity to Manipur could not shake the authorities to act and accelerate the pace of construction work.
Manipur has only 1.5 km of rail head. It was expected to be on the Indian railway network by 2009 if the Jiribam-Tupul BG was completed in time. The possibility of this is now a distant dream. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone of the project in 2004 at Jiribam in presence of the then railway minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav. It was to boost the development of Manipur and make it an alternative access to the State.
The existing National Highways 37 and 39 are the surface connectivity for transportation of passengers and goods. But, both are subjected to disruptions in the movement of traffic. While NH 37 through Barak Valley continues to be in bad shape, NH 37 through Nagaland faces frequent blockades imposed by Naga bodies to back up their political demands. The delay in the BG project has raised a relevant question. Is it caught in the well-known syndrome of red-tapism of politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats and contractors to delay it? Or is active transport lobby behind this delay?
It is relevant to mention here that worried at the delay, the former Union minister, Sontosh Mohan Dev, in his letter to P Chidambaram, the then Finance minister had sought allocations of necessary funds for the BG line to Imphal. In reply, the former Finance minister admitted ‘serious stalemate’ in the construction of the project. The letter also reminded P Chidambaram about the commitment of Lalu Prasad Yadav of its completion by 2009. The Prime Minister had declared it as national project for which fund would not be a constraint.
According to a competent source, the progress so far made in the construction of the project during the last 8 years is the completion of 12.5 km track from Jiribam to Dholakhal section and 1.2 km of loop line only. Of the 119 bridges, major and minor, only 6 have been completed. Only one railway station of the 7 new railway stations has been constructed. No information is available on the progress of work of 35 tunnels. The railway alignment passes through the hilly and difficult terrain, criss-crossing streams, rivers and gorges. It touches the three districts of East Imphal, Tamenlong and Senapati. The NF Railway has attributed the delay to prolong monsoon, prevailing security scenario, frequent bandhs and blockades. The target for the rolling stock movement has now been extended to March, 2016.
According to the records available with The Sentinel, the Manipur Government did not favour extension of the rail link from Jiribam on the ground that the route would necessitate movement of trains over the congested MG hills section between Lumding and Silchar, now being converted into BG. Manipur expressed its keenness on the Lumding-Tinsukia-Dibrugarh BG route up to Kerong, the survey of which was approved by the Railway Board. The engineering-cum-traffic survey was prepared in 1997 and approved in 1998.
The former Railway minister, LP Yadav, on the other hand, said on the advice of the Manipur Government that the Diphu-Kerong plan was dropped. The Railway ministry was therefore back to Jiribam track to extend the line to Tulup, 25 km short of Imphal. No plausible explanation was given by the State government for preferring Jiribam-Tulup alignment which the railways after survey, had described as “highly critical and wild”.
The expeditious completion of BG is essential to ensure trouble free movement of passengers and goods to landlocked Manipur. The Chief Minister, Ibobi Singh, has said that the railway link to Imphal via Jiribam would remove the hurdles in the movement of traffic. This however depends on the completion of Silchar-Lumding BG and the conversion of Silchar-Jiribam MG track into BG. If the Centre is serious about the development of Northeast, it has to give priority to the national projects of the broad gauge for hassle and hurdle free movement of rolling stock all the way from Lumding to Tulup (Imphal). source: http://www.sentinelassam.com
