Imphal, Jan 5 (UNI): Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh flagged off the extension of Silchar-Jiribam Passenger train upto Vangaichungpao virtually from the CM’s Office here on Wednesday.
Before the inauguration both reviewed the Imphal Jiribam railway line by air.
Addressing the media at the CM’s Office, Vaishnaw said PM Modi puts tremendous importance on the Imphal-Jiribam project taken up at a cost of Rs 1,4000 crore.
He said in between the two stations one railway station will be built. The service will reach Khongsang before March, he assured.
Vaishnaw said when the project is completed, prosperity and ease of travel will be ensured and the government has decided to change the working pattern on the project.
Earlier works were done only in one section but now works will be executed in all the sections in parallel to ensure that the project is completed before the end of next year
He also assured to personally visit Manipur to review the works. PM has instructed to complete the work by providing double efforts.
The Imphal, Moreh rail project will also be started, he said.
Chief Minister N Biren demanded a rail line to Agartala from Jiribam and a ring rail line near the Manipur foothills.
The Union Minister assured to start works on the two projects.
The Chief Minister said he is thankful to Ashwini Vaishnaw for agreeing to extend the rail line from Imphal to Moreh and Jiribam to Agartala.
Vaishnaw who also holds the Communications and Electronics & Information Technology of India portfolio said the government has also taken up a high speed bandwidth project of 10 GBPS from Cox bazar (Bangladesh) side instead of bringing the line from Chennai to Bengal to Guwahati to Imphal to improve internet connectivity. The line was stabilized and the government has decided to double the capacity of the line and provide good internet connectivity to every person and family.
Former Prime Minis ter Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for the national project in 2004 with a target to complete Jiribam – Imphal highway by 2017. The 111 long km railway line will have the world’s tallest bridge pier of 141 meters at Noney. As the line passes through hill areas
there will be a tunnel of about 62 km.
According to Railway officials the line will have about 8 stations, 145 bridges including 11 major ones. One of the tunnels will be of 11.55 km length which will be the longest in the country. Once the line reaches Imphal the plan is to extend it to Moreh the Manipur Myanmar border
