Rly construction suspended due to terrorism

Guwahati, Sep 1 (UNI) The much-ambitious gauge conversion work of the NF Railway between the Lumding and Silchar through N C Hills has been suspended by construction majors due to constant terrorism threat since yesterday.

The Rs 1500 crores project came to grinding halt after destruction of a Rs 60 lakh excavator by the members of the 'Black Widow' terrorist group of the NC Hills. They set afire the excavator triggering a unanimous suspension of all the work, pushing the highly strategic project into complete uncertainty.

Addressing a news conference here today, the 13 construction giants collectively said that they had now only two options left-- surrender suspension. ''We prefer suspension rather than surrender,'' said Mr Shankar Das of Shivam Construction.

The 'Black Widow' is a small splinter group of the Dima Halo Daogah (DHD), who is opposing the peace talk going on between the DHD and the Centre. They outbit bas been popped up by the NSCN (IM) allegedly to create disturbance in the hills district to keep the whole area unstable as the NSCN (IM) wants the NC Hills to be part of their greater Nagalim dream.

The 'Black Widow' has been supported by the NSCN(IM) both with arms and logistics, the police have confirmed from Haflong.

Among the construction majors who suspnded works are Shivam Construction, Bharatiya Associates, Raitani Engineering, P C Construction, M K Engineering and Brahamputra consortium.

According to the NF Railway construction division sources, only 37 per cent work had progressed since 1996-97 because of constant threat from the insurgents of the districts derailing the 171 kilometre project, considered a technological marvel of the Indian railway.

The target for completion of the project was March 2009. There are 70 major bridges and 259 minor ones on the entire route. The track is extremely important as it is the only railway supply route for Mizoram, Tripura and even Manipur.

''Beside the burning of the excavator by the terrorists on August 28, a costly and sensitive walkie-talk set, needed for underground tunneling work, was taken away by the militants. In fact, one person of the M K Engineering group got killed,'' claimed Mr Das.

The construction giants had approached the railway authorities who in turn contacted the Chief Secretary of Asom. ''But unfortunately there is no security. A similar project on Agartala-Kumarghat section has been progressing well because of constant support by the Tripura government,'' he said.

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