All North-East capital cities set to be on Indian railway map by 2017

By 2017, all capital cities of North-East India are expected to be connected by Indian railways. That means, you can board at Imphal, Kohima or Itanagar and travel to New Delhi or Mumbai by trains. As many parts of North-East are hilly terrains, most NE cities and towns are yet to be connected by rail links. Currently, Assam’s capital city Guwahati is connected to Tripura’s capital Agartala, but other cities such as Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Kohima (Nagaland), Imphal (Manipur), Aizwal (Mizoram), Shillong (Meghalaya) and Gangtok (Sikkim) are not connected by rail network.

But “North East Vision 2020”, prepared by the North Eastern Council (NEC), clearly says that all capital cities of North-East India will be connected by rail by 2017. Media reports have recently quoted Northeast Frontier Railways (NFR) General Manager (Construction) Vijaya Kanth as saying that the target is achievable if land acquisition takes place well on time.

As the monsoon in North-Eastern states is very long, it gives very just half a year for actual work on the grounds. The current railway projects get stalled during the monsoon months and are being undertaken only between October and March.

But if a wide railway network is laid in this hilly terrain, it may give a window to a gast-tracked development of the far-flung region. Also, the government has been actively considering a proposal to connect border points with railways which in turn will boost NE’s border trade with neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Already, Northeastern Frontier Railways has been laying tracks to extend its network up to the border town of Sabroom in southern Tripura. It is about 135 km from Agartala, and once this rail line is laid, the goods from the North-East region will have an easy access to Chittagong international sea port. According to reports, Agartala-Sabroom railway line is scheduled to be completed by 2014.

According to plans, Arunachal Pradesh’s capital city of Itanagar will be joined from Harmuti where rail network is already available. In Sikkim, tracks will be laid from Sevoke in West Bengal to Rangpo in south Sikkim. Nagaland's Kohima will be joined from Dimapur which is already an important railways station, and for Imphal, tracks will be extended from Jiribam.