THE INDIAN RAIlWAYS IS ON THE CHAllENGING TASK OF CONNECTING THE NE WITH THE REST OF THE NATION. Some of the DAUNTING projects include the Bogibeel Bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra, the longest tunnel in India on the Jiribum, A new BROAD GUAGE line and connectivity with THE Chittagong port through Bangladesh via Akhura. DEEPAK KUMAR JHA VISITED THE REGION TO BRING YOU A REPORT
Bored of a vacation at Shimla, Nainital, Dalhousie, Kashmir, Rishikesh, Patnitop, or for that matter down south in God’s own land in KeralaIJ Wait for a couple of years to explore the mystique of India’s Seven Sisters also known as the North East.
The pristine mountains, rain-bearing clouds, crystal clear water bodies, scheduled cultures and cuisine and many more are being prepared to be traversed by the Indian Railways right from Kashmir to Imphal and from Trivandrum to Tawang, not to mention a clutch of trains from Delhi, to all the State capitals of the North East (NE).
The Indian Railways has lined up several projects worth at least Rs 50,000 crore to connect important cities of North Eastern States and areas bordering China, Myanmar and Bangladesh with the rest of the country. Not only is the NE rail route ripe with avenues for tourists, once completed, it will also put NE on regular tourism routes. Rail development will also help NE in expanding business through handicrafts, bamboo, bananas and areca nuts to reach other States quickly.
According to existing data, the North Eastern States attract niche tourists who prefer soft adventure, eco-tourism and luxury camping. The region is also on the wishlist of those who prefer to visit untapped destinations. Under the Narendra Modi Government’s ‘Mission 2020’, the Indian Railways has been tasked with providing connectivity to eight States of the northeast by 2020.
Rail infrastructure works will provide rail links to the capital cities of Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Nagaland in the next two years. Projects include laying of over 1,500 km of rail lines and several engineering marvels such as India’s longest double-decker rail-cum-road bridge, one of the longest tunnels in the country and the world’s tallest pillar-based rail bridge. Most of the records are currently held by rail projects in Jammu and Kashmir which will be broken by the NE.
Post Independence, when Railway network in the region was cut off from rest of the country due to carving out of Bangladesh, the connection was restored by a meter gauge rail link in record time. In subsequent decades, Broad Gauge (BG) connection started up to Tinsukia and later on several ambitious projects being undertaken by the Northeast Frontier Railway Zone (NFR) which was created in 1958.
The NFR operational areas were Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura, besides parts of West Bengal and Bihar. later, Sikkim was brought under its operational jurisdiction. The NFR also has major roles to play in the Act East Policy of the Government and considerable stake has been put into rail connectivity with Nepal and Myanmar in the proposed Trans Asian Railway Network.
India will set up new rail links with Myanmar and Bangladesh in the coming years through these rail lines in border States of NE. An 180-km railway line in Arunachal Pradesh is underway to provide accessibility right up to the China border in Tawang, and another rail line from Imphal in Manipur to Moreh at the Myanmar border. A rail link connecting Agartala in Tripura and Bangladesh is under construction.
While Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura are already connected by rail, the capitals of Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland are not. An 111-km rail line from Jiribam in Manipur, located at the Assam border, is being constructed to connect Imphal. Through Imphal one can reach Moreh on the Myanmar border in a few years. The feasibility study of this 100-km line has been done.
“These lines will connect the capitals of all NE states with the network in Guwahati. It will significantly cut down travel time between the NE States and other parts of the country providing a cheaper mode of transportation to the people and simultaneously boosting freight movement making goods cheaper,” Ashwani lohani, Railway Board Chairman, says.
Guwahati will continue to be the window to the NE and Trans Asian Rail Network along with the upcoming Agartala Dhaka link. The Capital of Assam which was connected to national rail network through a MG link soon after Independence and Partition, came on BG network in mid-80s. Itanagar has been provided with BG connectivity by commissioning of new line from Harmuti to Naharlagun. Naharlagun is around 10 km from Itanagar. The Capital of Tripura had an MG connection which has since been converted into BG.
Works on providing connectivity to Gangtok (Sikkim) are underway to connect the existing Guwahati — Rangpo (Sikkim) project. The distance between Gangtok and Rangpo is 40 km.
Assam and Meghalaya will be connected through the Byrnihat-Shillong line of 108.4 km. This has faced severe opposition from the influential Khasi Students’ Union which has demanded a discussion with civil society groups and putting in place a “comprehensive and an effective” mechanism to check influx of illegal immigrants before allowing work on the railway projects.
The Railways is also connecting Agartala to Bangladesh, thereby reducing travel time between Tripura and Kolkata from 24 hours to less than 10 hours. From Agartala to reach Kolkata, the train has to take a route from Guwahati at the chicken neck point and then come downwards to Howrah.
Once the Akhoura Indo-Bangle Border is done, reaching Kolkata or Delhi from Agartala via Dhaka will be much shorter. There are several strategic lines like Tawang to help defence forces and a few are funded by the Ministry of Defence.
“Rail connectivity in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim is also underway. These lines, mostly connecting with Guwahati, would be completed by 2020,” Ved Prakash, spokesperson, Rail Board, said.
Among the present rail infrastructure being developed, Manipur is likely to be more adventurous and exciting, particularly a hilly place in terrains of Shivalik which is also being developed as a fabulous holiday spot.
With railway chiseling into the high altitude valleys of Manipur, the State Government plans which faced hostility from insurgency leading to economic blockade to protest development, is now promoting homestays in this picturesque town.
The 110-km the Jiribam-Imphal line will connect Imphal to the rest of India through Silchar, Haflong, lumding and Guwahati, and is expected to not only bring more tourists to the landlocked NE, but also help transport its agro-based products to the mainland easily.
The area (Noney) of Manipur, located 63 km west of Imphal, is virginal as far as tourist influx is concerned. According to officials, homestays in the region will be funded by the State Government with provisions of all the basic facilities.
“The town has 650 households and 6,000 people. Instead of building hotels, the idea is to promote homestay, which will help tourists experience the local culture. While the State Government will undertake most of the work, the Railways will provide the infrastructure,” A Saibaba, Chief Engineer, Construction, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), and the in-charge of Jiribam-Imphal project, said.
The project with 137 bridges will have the tallest girder bridge in the world at 141 metres and will itself be a tourist attraction when completed.
The footfall of foreign tourists, who mainly come from Japan and South Korea, fell by six per cent from 3,260 in 2015 to 3,064 in 2016, in Manipur, while there was only a three per cent growth in terms of domestic tourist during the period.
As the NE region needed accelerated infrastructural development in terms of railway connectivity, the NEFR Construction Organization was created in 1979 for construction projects.
The 43 ongoing projects under its portfolio including 25 New Railway line projects. Eleven of these projects are national projects. Most of the projects in the region involve daunting engineering tasks in extremely difficult terrains. Some of the most challenging projects are going to include the Bogibeel Bridge over the mighty Brahmaputra, the longest tunnel in India on the Jiribum — Tupul, new BG line and connectivity with Chittagong port through Bangladesh Railway via Akhura.
The region falls in south Himalayas where geological conditions are very challenging. Difficult accesses to work sites, law and order problems and high capital intensive costs have made the execution of projects difficult in the region.
The world-class materials being used are transported by road from across the country. Interestingly, the work is also being done in a very sustainable fashion which includes the rocks granules being baked into bricks with an IIT-Delhi technology and they will be used for laying of access roads and building facilities around the sites.
Another interesting fact is that the young mountains, which in layman terms, are very soft and turn into sand form soon are being reinforced during the construction exercise from rocks ‘imported’ from far off Jharkhand.
However, to first bridge the gap, the ambitious 5 km Bogibeel Bridge on Brahmaputra is being readied for commissioning. The bridge, which is the second longest in Asia, has three-lane roads on top and double line rail below. The bridge is 32 metres above the water level of the Brahamaputra and is fashioned on a bridge that links Sweden and Denmark.
This bridge is a symbol of development in NE as well as part of a strategic move solving logistical issues for the Armed Forces stationed at the China border to get supplies from Tezpur. India and China share a 4,000 km border in the NE.
Bogibeel is part of several infrastructure projects planned by India to improve logistics along the border in Arunachal Pradesh. This includes the construction of a trans-Arunachal highway on the north bank of the Brahmaputra, and a new road and rail links over the mighty river and its major tributaries such as the Dibang, lohit, Subansiri and Kameng.
The journey also boasts of wildlife and tuskers often in sight. Recent incidents of the pachyderms being killed on railways tracks has made the authorities to sing the tune of bees to protect the sizeable elephants in the region.
Artificially created sound of honeybees will keep the elephants away from the railway tracks, an idea introduced by the Northeast Frontier Railway.
It is a simple device that amplifies the recorded sound of honeybees downloaded from the internet. The device is audible to an elephant 600 metres away.