Trans-Asian railway line to pass through Manipur

Imphal, July 03: The inter-governmental agreement on Trans-Asian Railway that proposes to connect 28 nations will pass through Manipur, Manipur Information Centre officials said here today.

So far railhead had to reach Manipur and survey works were going on to put Manipur on the Indian rail map.

Officials said Railway Board Chairman J P Batra signed the agreement on June 29 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Earlier, 18 countries signed it at Busan in Korea in November 2006.

Now with India and Bangladesh signing it, 20 countries would become signatories.

The Trans-Asian Railway network envisages 80,900 km of railway lines through 28 countries, including 22,600 km through South Asian, Iran and Turkey.

The Southern Corridor of the network begins in Kunming in China and Bangkok in Thailand and ends in Kapikule in Bulgaria.

The total length of the route between Bangkok and Kapikule is 11,460 km and it provides trans-continental connectivity to China, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Iran and Turkey.

The proposed route would enter India at Moreh in Manipur bordering Myanmar, then would enter Bangladesh at Mahisasan or Shabajpur and again India from Bangladesh at Gede.

On the western side, the line would enter Pakistan at Attari.

There is a 315 km missing link on the route between India and Myanmar, of this, 180 km in India is between Jiribam and Moreh in Manipur.

The construction of this missing link, as per feasibility study conducted by the Ministry of External Affairs through RITES Limited, was estimated to cost Rs 2941 crores.

On this portion, Ministry of Railways had sanctioned construction of 97 km new rail link between Jiribam and Tupul costing Rs 727.56 crores.

Apart from strengthening rail links in the northeast, the new network would give opportunity to strengthen ties with south-east Asian nations.

It would also improve transport between Asia and Europe, facilitating movement of goods and containers between SAARC and ASEAN countries and enhanced trade, officials said.

UNI