Assam Rail Passengers’ Association calls for separate railway zone for Northeast

Guwahati, Oct 30: The Assam Rail Passengers’ Association (ARPA) has demanded the formation of a separate railway zone comprising only the eight north-eastern States.

ARPA secretary Dipankar Sharma said that the existing Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) zone should be bifurcated and a new composite zonal railway comprising the eight north-eastern States should be constituted.

Sharma said that the Alipurduar Division, comprising the West Bengal portion of the NFR, and the Katihar Division, comprising the Bihar portion of the NFR, should be attached to the Eastern Railway (ER) or the East Central Railway (ECR) zone.

“The remaining three railway divisions of the NFR – Rangiya, Lumding, and Tinsukia – should be suitably restructured to cater to the needs of all eight States of the Northeast so that balanced and coordinated development of railway infrastructure and services can effectively be ensured in collaboration with all the States of the region. There should also be one more railway division at Badarpur for the effective control of southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur,” he said.

ARPA has also demanded early Union Cabinet approval for the construction of new lines that were sanctioned in the Railway Budget 2017. These include the Tezpur-Silghat (25 km), Salona-Khumtai (99 km), and Jorhat-Sivasagar (62 km) sections.

“Doing so will bring Dibrugarh, Jorhat, and other places in Upper Assam close to Guwahati. Besides, the availability of alternate routes will help in the movement of essential commodities and troops during emergencies,” Sharma said.

The Association has also sought an early start to the construction of the proposed new rail-cum-road bridge at Saraighat to remove the existing bottleneck.

“New passenger terminals are coming up at New Guwahati, Narengi, Agyathuri, Changsari, Azara, and Dhamalgaon. Accordingly, sub-urban terminals are also required at Sarbhog and Rangiya for the movement of local trains. In view of route electrification, sub-urban EMU/MEMU service should be introduced, which will indirectly help all sections of people. The Railway Ministry should approve all the stoppage proposals sent by the NFR administration as a special case of a frontier State. Public representatives from Assam should discuss these issues with the Railway Ministry,” Sharma said.

ARPA has also demanded that the long-distance trains to and from the State should be operated using the shortest routes to keep the running time less.

It has also demanded resumption of the services of trains that were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the Mariani-Dimapur Passenger, Dibrugarh-Kolkata Superfast, Alipurduar-Kamakhya Intercity, Dibrugarh-Ledo DEMU, Dibrugarh-Dekargaon Express, and the Dibrugarh-Guwahati Shatabdi.

“The Railway Ministry should also restore the fare concessions provided earlier to the senior citizens and media persons,” Sharma said.

The Association has called for extension of services of a few trains, including the Brahmaputra Express up to Dibrugarh Town, the New Jalpaiguri-Bongaigaon Intercity up to Rangiya, and the Guwahati-New Bongaigaon Passenger up to Fakiragram.

“There is also an urgent need for the extension of the railway line from Dekargaon to Tezpur again. There should also be special measures for sleeper class travel up to 200 km during daytime in the absence of local trains. All the TOD trains should also be converted to normal Express status. We also call upon the government to introduce premium trains to destinations like Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Bengaluru with limited stoppages outside Assam. In addition, sufficient numbers of Intercity trains from places like Sivasagar, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Dhubri, etc., to Guwahati should be introduced.

Facilities like ramps, escalators, lifts, toilets, drinking water, and end-to-end open foot over-bridges (FOBs) should be installed in all stations,” Sharma said. He asserted that a mechanism for conducting regular review meetings between the Railways and the Assam government should also be put in place.

Sharma added, “A third line should be immediately sanctioned in the New Bongaigaon-Rangiya-Agyathuri section to handle the increasing amount of traffic.”

By

Staff Reporter