The North-East Frontier Railway (NFR) might run broad gauge (BG) passenger trains between the lumding-Silchar hill section from November this year.
Announcing this here on Monday, General Manager of the NFR, RK Gupta said the authorities were waiting for the rainy season to end considering the geographical and geological constraints in the lumding-Silchar hill section.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had in March this year flagged off the first broad gauge goods train on the newly-constructed lumding-Silchar Hill section and the first goods train carried about 2,300 tonnes of potatoes from West Bengal and chugged into the pristine Barail Hills.
“The Mega Block which continued from October 1 last year till March this year is over. We have started running the goods trains in the stretch. However, the area is geographically and geologically hostile. But we hope to start the passenger trains between the section after the rainy season is over,” the NFR GM said.
He said minor work like ventilation in the tunnel was on and likely to be completed before October this year.
The NFR had to undertake a mega block in the stretch from October last year to convert the meter gauge tracks to broad gauge.
Prior to the gauge conversion, a century-old Meter Gauge rail line had been the lifeline of people in Southern Assam and the States of Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur and the mega block had affected over 70 lakh people in Mizoram, Tripura and four districts of Assam’s Barak Valley. Built at an anticipated cost of Rs5,500 crore, the total length of the BG project is 210 km, and there are 17 tunnels. The ambitious railway project, which is a national project, has 79 major bridges, 340 minor bridges, 28 railway stations and four halt stations.