Railway minister announces NE electrification by 2026, IT hub for Guwahati station
Plans include an IT hub at Guwahati railway station, a locomotive remanufacturing facility in Lumding, a wagon unit in Basugaon and six new Gatishakti cargo terminals in Assam
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at Advantage Assam summit (Photo: @PIB_India / X)
Guwahati, Feb 26: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday announced that electrification in the Northeast will be completed by March 2026, even as two manufacturing units are coming up at Lumding and Basugaon.
He also announced plans to transform Guwahati railway station into an IT hub.
"We are doing this in Bhubaneswar. If local laws permit, we plan to build a 12-storey building. The lower two floors can be used by the Railways, while the rest will be for IT firms. I request the IT industry to prepare for this," Vaishnaw said addressing a session at the Advantage Assam 2.0 summit here.
At Lumding there will be a locomotive re-manufacturing facility, while the Bodoland Territorial Region will get a wagon manufacturing centre at Basugaon.
"I have requested the State government to pro-vide the land in Lumding. A big economic activity will start there," the minister said.
He also announced six new Gatishakti cargo terminals in Assam, two new Amrit Bharat trains from Assam, Silchar-Guwahati and Guwahati-Agartala intercity trains and plans to four-lining of the track that passes through the 'chicken neck' connecting the Northeast with the rest of the country.
"The completion of the Kokrajhar-Gelephu rail link will also give me immense satisfaction," the Union minister said, also mentioning plans to set up an electronics manufacturing hub in Kamrup district.
He said "surprising changes" were happening in Assam which were never imagined ten years ago. "The Northeast is the new engine of growth. There has been unlimited sanctions from the Centre for the State to meet its potential," he added.