Northeast Frontier Railway officials said here today the railway ministry had nodded to the revised cost estimate submitted last year, and getting environmental clearance from the state’s environment and forests department and acquisition of private land are the two major setbacks now.
The NF Railway chief engineer informed a meeting of state level task force today that as per a joint verification of district administrators of Aizawl and Kolasib, and officials of revenue and forest departments, the rail extension project will eat into 74.488 hectares of forest and 352.792 hectares of private land, a total of 427.28 hectares.
The landmark project of the extension of the vital broad gauge rail link between Bairabi rail terminus on the Mizoram-Assam border and Sairang, a small town 20km west of Aizawl, is targeted to be completed by March 2015.
The original outlay of this project, when the inter-state 51km Lalabazar-Bairabhi metre gauge link was commissioned, was envisaged at Rs 519.34 crore in 1995.
It was revised last year to Rs 2,384.34 crore for a track through the hills and forests spanning 50.9 km in length. The railway ministry is ready to sanction fund as per the revised cost estimate, the officials said.
The NF Railway officials hoped that papers would be cleared soon for floating tender inviting construction companies.
Earlier today, the NF Railway officials also met state chief secretary Vanhela Pachuau and informed him about the urgency of getting forest clearance and land acquisition. They also stated that feeder roads, a camp office in Aizawl and Mizo officials on deputation would be required to execute the project. The chief secretary assured that the state government would extend all possible help to implement the project,as it is crucial to boost the state’s economy.
The Mizoram government has set up the state level task force, chaired by Zasanga, a retired official of the Indian postal service, to help the NFR (construction) to complete the rail project.
Some student groups and NGOs in Mizoram are opposed to this rail extension scheme as they apprehend that after the completion of this project, outsiders would come into the state and enjoy the prospects of new trade and business establishments.
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has set aside such fears of assimilation of the indigenous people with the outsiders and made it clear that the this rail link would prove to be useful for exporting the state’s agricultural products as well as import other goods at lower prices.
Zasanga said 24 tunnels would have to be dug for facilitating the train movement in this 50.9km rail extension network and at least 11 big bridges would also be built.
The project, being a national one, will be administered by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), and the Centre would bear 75 per cent of its cost and the rest 25 per cent would be borne by the railways, said Zasanga.