Rs 8,060 Crores Sanctioned for Northeast Frontier Railway in Budget 2021

A sum of Rs 8,060 crore has been allocated for the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in this year's Budget, officials said on Friday.

NFR's Chief Public Relations Officer Subhanan Chanda said that of the Rs 8,060 crore, Rs 4,330 crore has been allocated for three new Lines and doubling of several railway line works.

A sum of Rs 3,470 crore has been allocated for safety and capacity enhancement works while passenger amenities received Rs 166 crore.

The NFR, one among the 17 railway zones in India, operates fully and partially in six of the eight northeastern states, excluding Meghalaya and Sikkim, as well as in seven districts of West Bengal and five districts of north Bihar.

Chanda said that this year's budget has allocated Rs 650 crore for doubling of the New Bongaigaon-Agthori (via Rangiya) and Rs 610 crore for the New Bongaigaon-Goalpara- Guwahati section. Similarly, the Digaru-Hojai doubling work has been allocated Rs 100 crore and New Mainaguri-Gumanihat doubling work Rs 110 crore.

Among the new projects, Sivok-Rangpo project (44.96 km) has been allocated Rs 1,100 crore, Tetelia-Byrnihat project allocated Rs 101 crore and Rs 300 crore has been allocated for the Agartala-Akhaura (Bangladesh) project to link Indian Railways with the Bangladesh railway network.

Rs 1,000 crore each has been allocated for the Jiribam-Imphal railway project in Manipur and Bairabi-Sairang project in Mizoram and Rs 800 crore has been allocated for the Dimapur-Zubza project in Nagaland.

The CPRO said that in this year's budget has put the thrust mainly on infrastructure expansion, speed augmentation of trains, development of terminal facilities, improvement of amenities for passengers and other users, construction of road over bridges and road under bridges for the safety of road users, modernisation of the signaling system for enhancement of safety and speed.

The NFR is also taking measures to optimise logistic services to boost economic growth in the region. Focus is also on international connectivity particularly with Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar as per "Act East Policy".

Chanda said that Indian railways are marching ahead on its bigger plan like achieving 100 per cent electrification and a "Net Zero Carbon Emission" network by 2030. He said that electrification upto Guwahati is expected to be completed by March this year while work in the balance portion of NFR is targeted for completion by March 2024.