NEFR to resume Lumding-Silchar train service

Shillong, Jul 10 (UNI) The North East Frontier Railway has decided to start passenger train service from Lumding to Silchar in Assam, even as 50 per cent of the work for the project has been completed despite violence in the state.

'' We are contemplating to resume our passenger train service from Lumding-Silchar as the law and order situation is limping back to normalcy,'' Union Minister of State for Railways Rangasamy Velu told reporters here yesterday.

Train services on the 201-km-long Lumding-Silchar stretch were withdrawn after Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) militants attacked several construction workers and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel.

The Union Minister, who reviewed the 19 railway projects with senior North East Frontier Railways, however, exuded confidence to complete the Lumding-Silchar rail project in time.

'' 50 per cent of the work for the project has been completed despite violence,'' Mr Velu said.

In the 201-km Lumding-Silchar rail line, there are 130 big bridges, 654 small bridges and 10,480 metres of tunnels and only about 50 per cent work of the entire project was completed.

Mr Velu said the Assam government has provided adequate security and central paramilitary forces have been deployed for the smooth completion of the project and is likely to be completed within the next 4 years.

'' Our prime task was to link the region with better rail connectivity with the rest of the country,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the NEFR announced that the Kumarghat-Agartala railway project would start by mid-August after clearance from the railway safety commissioner.

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