Dhubri, Dec. 27: West Assam and North Bengal will soon be connected by railway network. Railway minister Nitish Kumar has assured the joint convenor of New Moinaguri-Jogighopa Railway Extension Demand Committee, Tazmul Hoque, that a new broad gauge railway line from New Moinaguri to Jogighopa will be completed soon.
Hoque said tenders for the three-phase work ? from Moinaguri to Changrabandha, Golokganj to Gauripur and Mathabhanga to Jogighopa (Abhayapuri) ? have been completed following a final location survey by the Rail India Technical Economic Services (Rites).
The railway network in the Northeast was isolated from the rest of the country during Partition.
But there has been a persistent demand from the people of the area to connect the northern part of West Bengal and the western part of Assam with the mainstream railway network.
The proposed rail line will traverse through Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts in West Bengal and Dhubri and Bongaigaon districts in Assam. It will take off from New Moinaguri, go via Mathabhanga and touch the New Cooch Behar railway station on the existing broad gauge railway line.
From New Cooch Behar, it will run along National Highway 31 through Boxirhat and Toofangunj and touch the existing station at Golokganj in Assam.
From Golokganj to Gauripur, it will ply along the existing metre gauge section that has already been approved for gauge conversion.
After Gauripur, it will pass through Bilasipara, Chapar and touch Abhayapuri railway station on the existing New Bongaigaon-Jogighopa section.
The total length of the proposed railway line from New Moinaguri railway station to Jogighopa railway station is 246 km. Of this, 217 km has been marked for new alignment, 13 km for conversion of existing line from Golokganj to Gauripuri and 16 km will be covered on existing broad gauge section from Abhayapuri to Jogighopa. There will be 20 railway stations with 57 major and 187 minor bridges.
The proposal of this railway line, with an estimated cost of Rs 887 crore, was accepted in the railway budget of 2000-01. At that time, only Rs 6 crore was sanctioned for land survey.
Another Rs 10 crore was allotted for the project later, of which Rs 9.5 crore was given to Cooch Behar district administration for payment of land compensation and construction of a new yard at the New Cooch Behar railway station.
The project was earlier sanctioned without a final location survey and detailed estimate. However, survey work has now been started between New Moinaguri and Mathabhanga and work on 32 km of alignment was completed by April last year.