Railways expands network to northeastern states

In view of India’s security strategy towards the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along the India-China border and with the objective of assisting the Indian Army in moving its men and equipment to the border, Indian Railways has planned to provide their Expanding railway network to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of the northeastern border state.

Indian Railways has already completed the final site survey.

Northeast Frontier Railway General Manager Anshul Gupta said that NF Railway has already sent the final site survey report to a higher authority.

“The first Defense Ministry meeting was also held and they agreed on two more projects – one is Bame-Aalo to Mechuka and another project is Pasighat-Parshuram-Wakro. These three projects have already been approved and their survey has also been completed. Our goal is to complete the work on the new Pasighat line by March 2025,” said Anshul Gupta.

Regarding the rail projects of the Northeast State Connectivity, the General Manager of NF Railway said that NF Railway is trying to complete the rail connectivity work to Aizawl by December this year.

“After the Tupul incident, there is some lag in Imphal connectivity. We are doing some precautionary work and aim to complete the work by December 2024. The works in Sikkim will be completed by December 2024, and the train will go to Serima in Nagaland in September this year. We will complete the Serima to Kohima railway project works by March 2024. There is a Framework of Border and Hill Area Connection Projects worth Rs 1.20 lakh crore aimed at connecting some key towns and border areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, and Sikkim and we are working with the State Government, various organizations and of the Indian Army,” said Anshul Gupta.

On the other hand, NF Railway has signed a memorandum of understanding with Railtel to install a wildlife protection and civil protection system called Intrusion Detection System (IDS).

“To monitor wild elephants and protect them from being hit by trains, we recently developed an innovative system called the Intrusion Detection System (IDS). NF Railway used AI-based software with fiber optic cable (OFC) for this. We introduced it in Lumding Division (between Lanka and Lumding) and Alipurduar Division (between Hasimara and Alipurduar) and it has been working successfully for several months. In order to implement this on a large scale, we have signed this MOU with Railtel with the aim of using the Railtel cable,” said Anshul Gupta.