NF Rly to invest Rs 500 cr in NE

AGARTALA, June 30 ?The Northeast Frontier Railways expects to invest Rs 500 crore by next financial year for extension of rail services in the north-eastern region. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, general manager of the NF Railways Vipan Nanda said, the railway extension will also ensure employment of about 2,500 persons. As a part of its railway service improvement schemes, the NFR has already proposed to the Railway ministry for introduction of Passenger Reservation Systems (PRS) in some of the district headquarters of the north-eastern States.

Moreover, the general manager said, the NF Railways has sent fresh indent for metre gauge coaches from Kapurthala and wagons for Lumding-Silchar-Dharmanagar sections and added that it might take some time. According to him, the number of accidents had reduced by 40 per cent from the preceding years in the Lumding-Badarpur hill section. The Lumding-Silchar hill section is likely to be converted into broad gauge by 2009, he said.

Nanda expressed concern at the way the railway construction works in Tripura were being hampered by the militancy activities. He said, in the North-east construction works on an average are virtually limited to only six months. But in Tripura, due to militancy the works are limited to only about one and half months. ?Once a worker is abducted by the militants, the works come to a grinding halt and it takes months together to restore normalcy,? he observed. However, he added, two companies of Railway Protection Special Force would be sent to the State for the workers.

?Ninety per cent land acquisition works, 70 per cent earthworks and 50 percent bridge works have been completed so far,? the GM said adding that the by the year 2006, the Agartala-Kumarghat section would be made operational. However, initially it will be a metre gauge line. Broad gauge will be introduced once the Lumding-Silchar hill section is converted by 2009, he said. ?We hope to make the Kumarghat-Manu section operational by 2003, March,? Nanda said adding that the tunnel works in the Longtarai valley would begin by December next.

The Railway GM denied that due to militancy the construction costs had gone up and the contractors were refusing the carry out works here. It may be mentioned here that the works for the 118 kilometre Kumarghat-Agartala railway line began in 1998 but, of late, due to realignment of curves the length was reduced to only 108 kms. Besides, a few tunnels were also eliminated by the realignment. On the development of infrastructure in the railway stations in the State, he said, in Dharmanagar, some of the new facilities will be introduced within this financial year.