Silchar, Jan. 23: The projected cost of converting the 204-km metre gauge rail track between this town and Lumding station into the broad gauge, estimated at Rs 608 crore the project was launched in 1996, has escalated to Rs 1,400 crore.
Expressing concern over the escalation, a senior official of the North East Frontier Railway (construction) ascribed the hike to the ?niggardly flow of funds? from the railway ministry.
He said rain and occasional attacks by militants had slowed down the project and had resulted in cost escalation.
The official, however, hoped that the construction would gather momentum in next fiscal as the railway ministry was contemplating allotting Rs 300 crore for the project. The current fiscal?s fund allocation for the project is Rs 70 crore.
Sources said Rs 114 crore has already been spent on the project.
Congress MP and former Union minister, Santosh Mohan Dev, recently submitted to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee a plea for liberal grants for this long-pending project from the Rs 15000-crore Rail Vikas Yojana.
N.F. Railway general manager Vipan Nanda has now set 2007 as the deadline for the completion of project.
According to a N.F. Railway document, work on the conversion project is in progress at the 85-km stretch between Silchar and Jatinga Lampur.
The document stated that two bridges along this track ? the Rs 25-crore nine span bridge over the river Barak at Badarpur and the Rs 6.6-crore bridge over the river Katakhal ? is expected to be completed in one-and-a-half year?s time. Apart from the two major river bridges, 530 other bridges will also be constructed along the track, built on a difficult hill terrain.
Trains plying along the new track will have to traverse through 22 tunnels. The three-km tunnel near Jatinga village is the longest among the proposed tunnels on this route.
The sources said the new broad gauge line would enable the passenger trains to travel from Silchar to Lumding stations in six hours, five hours less than they take now.