CHAPARMUKH JN

45 (Forty five) railway stations of N.F. Railway have been provided with free Wi-Fi services for passenger till now. These includes A1 category stations like  Guwahati, New Jalpaiguri; A category stations like Katihar, New Alipuduar, Siliguri, New Coochbehar, Lumding, Silchar, Kishanganj, Rangiya, etc; B category stations like Kokrajhar, Agartala, Mariani, New Tinsukia, Dibrugarh etc; apart from various other stations like Chaparmukh, Lanka, Falakata, Jirania, Darjeeling, Ghum, Udaipur, Naharlagun etc.

Free Wi-Fi services in railway stations were planned with an aim to bring connectivity to millions of un-connected Indians. Indian Railway planned to provide free Wi-Fi services by using its optical fibre network spreading all over the country. In this connection Indian Railways had signed a MoU with Google in December, 2015 to launch the service, which offers thirty minutes of free internet access. After launching its first free Wi-Fi service at Mumbai Central station in January 2016, today 721 Railway stations of Indian Railway are having the free Wi-Fi service. Indian Railway subsidiary company RailTel is implementing the project in cooperation with Google throughout the country. RailTel also planned to introduce the free Wi-Fi service to 14 more stations like Hojai, New Bongaigaon, Diphu, Jalpaiguri, Samsi, Araria Court, Dhupguri etc within March this year. Remaining 351 stations of N.F. Railway will also to be provided in a planned way.

Shri Rajen Gohain, Minister of State of Railways today said that survey for construction of a new bridge over river Brahmaputra near Silghat is nearing completion and o­nce the survey is complete it can be considered for inclusion in the Budget. The Minister was speaking in the ceremonial function for flagging off of a new train from Silghat (Assam) to Kolkata signalling transformation of the middle Assam areas through improved communication.

Shri Keshab Mahanta, Minister of Water Resources, Govt of Assam was also among the dignitaries present at the function. Senior Railway Officers including Shri Nilesh Kishore Prasad, General Manager (Construction), N.F. Railway, Shri Ram Bahadur Rai, Divisional Railway Manager of Lumding Division were also present at the glittering ceremony attended by large number of enthusiastic people of nearby areas. Shri Gohain has said that the introduction of this new train is another step towards transformation through transportation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The new train consists of 19 new State-of-the-Art LHB coaches having modern amenities and facilities for passengers. The new weekly express train is expected to be greatly beneficial for improving the trade and commerce of the middle Assam areas apart from improving the communication with rest of the country. Tourist travelling to visit Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary would also to be benefited as the train will have stoppages at Amoni and Jakhalabandha.

In his speech Shri Rajen Gohain listed the achievements of post 2014 period. He has also said that a Delhi bound train and a south bound train will also be considered for introduction from Silghat soon. He announced an award of Rs 2 lakh for the division for excellent work of readying facilities like watering of trains etc within record time.

Regular service of the train will start from Kolkata w.e.f 07.01.2019 and from Silghat w.e.f. 08.01.2019.Train number 13182 Silghat – Kolkata Express will leave from Silghat at 12-30 hrs every Tuesday to reach Kolkata at 12-50 hrs next day. During return journey train number 13181 Kolkata – Silghat Express will leave from Kolkata at 09-05 hrs o­n Monday to reach Silghat at 09-55 hrs o­n Tuesday. The train will have stoppages at Jakhalabandha, Amoni, Nowgong, Senchoa, Chaparmukh, Jagiroad, Guwahati, Kamakhya, Goalpara Town, New Bongaigaon, Fakiragram, New Alipurduar, New Coochbehar, New Jalpaiguri, Malda Town, Rampurhat, Bolpur and Barddhaman during its journey o­n both ways. The train will have o­ne AC 2 tier, four AC 3 tier, eight sleeper class and four general second class coaches apart from two luggage cum generator vans.