JIRANIA

Maligaon, 13^th July, 2022:

In view of landslides and water logging due to incessant rain and resultant breaches and track damages in more than 60 locations of Lumding - Badarpur hill section of the Lumding division, services of passenger and freight trains had to be cancelled from second week of May, 2022. Northeast Frontier Railway has put all its efforts in restoring the damaged section and re-starting the train services as early as possible by braving all odds. As a result of which, freight train services in the Lumding - Badarpur hill section resumed last night after a prolonged gap of almost two months.

The first freight train carrying sugar has left last night for Jirania station (near Agartala) from Daotuhaja station. Another freight train, loaded with steel coils has left from Manderdisa for Bhairabi station (in Mizoram). Several more freight trains carrying commodities like stone chips, rice, etc will also be operated in this section to fulfil the supply gap. N. F. Railway is also making arrangements to bring back the empty freight rakes that were stuck in different sections of the devastated hill section since last two months. This will help operation of more trains.

It may be mentioned here that both railways and roadways in the Dima Hasao district got damaged owing to incessant rain. As a result, the entire hill section remained cut off with rest of the country by rail connectivity for the last two months. Railways being the bulk transporter of essentials items including POL products for states like Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and the entire Barak Valley areas of Assam; immediate filling up of shortages of essential and construction commodities are essential. Considering all these aspects, N. F. Railway has started running of freight carrying train with essential and non - essential commodities to make-good the shortage of day to day commodities for the people of affected areas. N. F. Railway is all set to resume the passenger train services as early as possible during the current month itself.

Northeast Frontier Railway has started transportation of rubber sheets and products as a new stream of goods traffic from Tripura to various destinations. Substantial production of rubber sheets takes place in Tripura. More than 90,000 tonnes of rubber is produced annually in Tripura which is having about 87000 hectares of rubber plantation.

Tripura exported more than 53000 tonnes of rubber during the financial year 2020-21 to places like Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Delhi. Transportation normally takes place through road sector. As part of the BDU initiative of the Lumding division of Northeast Frontier Railway Road shows were conducted at different locations of Tripura in co-operation with the state government. Interactions with rubber traders were held. Rubber is mainly produced in West Tripura, South Tripura and Sipahijala districts of Tripura which are served by railway stations like Sabroom, Belonia, Udaipur, Agartala and Jirania. Rubber traders were informed that they can easily transport rubber from their nearest convenient railway station at a much cheaper rate in comparison to road sector. For example; cost of transportation of per tonne of rubber by railway from Jirania to Delhi, Jalandhar and Sealdah is Rs. 2492.80, Rs. 2342.60 and Rs. 1745.90 respectively. In comparison, the cost of transportation of per tonne by road for the same distance is Rs. 4500.00, Rs. 5500.00 and Rs. 3500.00. Low cost of transportation will also result in overall cheaper availability of products to the end customer as transport costs reduce.