3 Trains from (GOM)GOGAMUKH to (DKGN)DEKARGAON

In order to transform Trade and Tourism in North East region through Rail connectivity and to promote cultural heritage of the Northeast; two more Vistadome train services were flagged off o­n 19^th December, 2021. The Vistadome train services between Guwahati - Naharlagun and Naharlagun – Tinsukia were flagged off by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma at Guwahati Railway Station, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Shri Pema Khandu at Naharlagun station and Smt. Darshana Jardosh, Hon’ble Minister of State of Railways & Textiles at Guwahati Railway Station. Both the locations were connected via video link. At Guwahati, Shri Chandra Mohan Patowary, Hon’ble Minister of Transport, Industries & Commerce, Govt. of Assam; Shri Bimal Bora, Hon’ble Minister of Sports & Youth Welfare, Cultural Affairs, Power and Tourism, Govt. of Assam, Smt. Queen Oja, Hon’ble MP (Lok Sabha) and Shri Anshul Gupta, General Manager of N. F. Railway were present. At Naharlagun station, Hon’ble MP (Rajya Sabha) Shri Nabam Rebia and Hon’ble MLA Shri Techi Kaso were also present. Moreover, existing Vistadome service between Guwahati and New Haflong have been decided to extend up to Badarpur to fulfil the demand of tourists.

The Vistadome coaches are equipped with state of the art glass windows and all glass roofs for providing view of the open sky, mountains, tunnels, bridges, hills, tea gardens and lush green forests to the tourists. It will also have observation lounges for the purpose of site seeing. The rotational seats of the coach are designed to provide added comfort to passengers. Coaches are also provided with digital entertainment system and Wi-Fi facilities. Tourist can enjoy the entire travel by enjoying infotainments like movies, music videos etc. Wi-Fi based passenger information system is also provided. For safety of passenger, CCTV cameras and Fire Alarm System are also installed.

The regular services of Train No. 12087/12088 Naharlagun – Guwahati – Naharlagun Shatabdi Express with Vistadome coach resumed w.e.f. 20-12-2021. The train runs three days a week leaving from Naharlagun o­n every Monday, Tuesday and Friday and from Guwahati o­n every Monday, Thursday and Sunday. The train departs from Naharlagun at 06-45 hours to reach Guwahati at 12-30 hours and from Guwahati at 13-45 hours to reach Naharlagun at 19-45 hours. The train covers a distance of 343 Kms and have stoppages at Harmuti, Viswanath Charali, Rangapara North, New Misamari, Udalguri, Tangla and Rangiya stations.

           The regular services of 15907/15908 Tinsukia – Naharlagun – Tinsukia Vistadome Express resumed w.e.f. 21-12-2021. The train runs five days a week leaving from Tinsukia o­n every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and leaving from Naharlagun o­n every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The train departs from Tinsukia at 16-00 hours to reach Naharlagun at 21-45 hours and from Naharlagun at 05-30 hours to reach Tinsukia at 10-40 hours. The train covers a distance of 225 Kms and have stoppages at New Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Dhemaji, Bordoloni, Gogamukh, Boginadi, North Lakhimpur and Harmuti stations.

           The existing services of Train No. 15888/15887 Guwahati – New Haflong – Guwahati have been extended to run up to Badarpur w.e.f. 22-12-2021. The Train No. 15888/15887 Guwahati – Badarpur – Guwahati departs from Guwahati at 06-45 hours to reach Badarpur at 14-20 hours and from Badarpur at 15-15 hours to reach Guwahati at 22-45 hours. The train covers a distance of 341 Kms and have stoppages at Maibong, New Haflong and Jatinga Lumpur stations.

   Guwahati – Naharlagun route is surrounded by the tea gardens and tourists can enjoy the scenic beauty of Himalayan range in north and green covers of tea gardens o­n either side of the track. Vistadome services from Naharlagun will provide breath-taking views of Brahmaputra River, the tea gardens, rain forests along the track and views of mountains of Himalayan range. The route also covers historic cities of Assam. Tourism sectors of this area will reap the benefits from these new services.

As a part of the initiatives by Northeast Frontier Railway to further improve the freight loading/unloading from various un-tapped locations, discussions with various stake holders are being held regularly. Loading and unloading of commodities from nearest locations help the local economy to flourish apart from making the essential items available for common people. Discussions are being held with traders by the Business Development Units (BDUs) of Northeast Frontier Railway about how they will be able to send their commodities to outside or receive delivery of materials from outside with lesser cost of transportation. These discussions by the BDUs within their respective areas are also helping to find new segment of traffic for movement by train. In a recent such initiative, the BDU of Rangiya division under Northeast Frontier Railway organised a meeting with North Assam Chambers of Commerce and Industry at Tezpur o­n 3^rd September, 2021.

 During the interactive session, various issues including potential for new loading from Dekargaon station, problems faced by the business community during loading/unloading were discussed. Demand for piecemeal traffic towards Dekargaon station aiming at facilitating transportation of goods of small scale industries was also discussed. Idea of Kisan Rail services to assist Individual/group of farmers, State Marketing/Co-operative Federation, Co-operative Societies, Food Processor units, etc aimed at ensuring a fast transportation of agricultural produce along with  subsidy was shared with the business community. Business communities were also informed that they can easily transport their commodities from their nearest convenient railway station at a much cheaper rate in comparison to road sector.     

It may be noted that N.F. Railway has set up Business Development Units (BDUs) at all the Divisions i.e. Katihar, Alipurduar, Rangiya, Lumding and Tinsukia and also at Zonal Head Quarters level to increase the freight transportation volume. The initiatives by the BDUs of various divisions have been successful in bringing in new mode of traffic to railways from road sector.