Lumding-Silchar broad-gauge rail line expected to become functional by November

GUWAHATI: The 210-kilometer Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion is expected to be over shortly. Regular trains are expected to run in the section starting this November, the railways said.

"Already we have run goods train. However, due to heavy rainfall, there is some cuts and slips," General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway RK Gupta said. The railways is hopeful of starting passenger train service by the first week of November, he added.

Conversion of the meter-gauge section of Lumding division in Assam started in October last year.

Movement of foodgrains to Mizoram, Tripura, south Assam and Manipur takes place through the Barak valley. Silchar is the main city of the valley. The railway line is broad gauge from Assam's main city of Guwahati up to Lumding (in southern Assam).

From Lumding, to Tripura's capital Agartala and western Manipur, Mizoram and southern Assam, the railway link is single-line meter gauge, constructed 110-112 years ago.

The 437-km long Lumding-Agartala metre-gauge line, part of which is in Assam and the remaining in Tripura, is being converted into broad gauge in two phases. It connects Bairabi in northern Mizoram and Jiribam in western Manipur with the rest of the country. The first phase of the project comprises gauge conversion in the Silchar-Lumding section.