New Delhi: The Railways have decided to pump in a whopping Rs 10,000 crore in the next five years to connect all north east state capitals with train network. "To ensure that fund constraints do not slow down the pace of work, five of the eight new projects in the region have been declared as National Projects," a senior official of the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said. The completion of the new projects will add 685 km of new lines to the existing network.

The NFR, which serves the eight north eastern states besides parts of Bihar and West Bengal, has a network of 5,151-km Broad Gauge track, 2,453-km Metre Gauge track and 109-km Narrow Gauge track.

The latest anticipated cost involved in these projects is about Rs 5,695.85 crore and till December last year, Rs 1,493.69 crore has been spent. In one of the National Projects - the 109-km long Kumarghat-Agartala new line - almost 95 per cent of the work has been completed and the new line is expected to be opened by March this year.

Almost half of the work on another National Project - the Bogibeel rail-cum-road bridge across River Brahmaputra - is finished. Referring to the construction of 98-km-long Broad Gauge line from Jiribum to Tuipui in Manipur, he said the railway line would open new opportunities for trade with Myanmar and other South East Asian countries since the Indo-Myanmar border was 100 km from Tuipui near Imphal.

Source : PTI