9 Trains from (JRNA)JIRANIA to (CBZ)CHURAIBARI

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.

NFR has been attempting to focus o­n infrastructural development of the existing railway transportation system and to boost tourism and improve connectivity in Tripura. Tripura is o­ne ofthe fastest growing state of North-East India is encircled by Bangladesh in the north, south and west and the States of Assam and Mizoram in the east. Railways being the main life-line of Indian economy, railway infrastructure are significant for the landlocked State of Tripura.

Tripura has seen major development works in Railway sector from 2014-22. The entire Railway network in Tripura has been converted to a broad gauge network in 2014-22 thereby eliminating all metre gauge railway lines in Tripura. To enhance connectivity, various sections like Agartala - Udaipur, Udaipur - Garjee, Garjee - Santirbazar, Belonia - Sabroom got connected by broad gauge line in Tripura. During the period from 2014-22, 115 km of new broad gauge lines commissioned in Tripura. Tripura's capital Agartala has reserved a place o­n India's broad gauge map with the much awaited starting off of Agartala - Anand Vihar Tripura Sundari Express o­n 31^stJuly 2016. First Rajdhani Express in Indian Railways with Tejas type AC sleeper coaches with latest amenities were introduced from Agartala o­n 15^th February 2021. It has already completed it’s o­ne year of successful running. Trains to Secunderabad and Bangalore from Agartala also introduced. o­n 8th January, 2022, the first train connecting Tripura and Manipur, the Janshatabdi express train between Agartala - Jiribam via Assam was flagged off.

Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has came to Tripura's rescue with the Roll o­n - Roll Off service to carry laden trucks loaded with fuel o­n flat-wagon goods train. When severe landslides had cut off road connectivity to Tripura in the month of July - August, 2016, shortage of fuel supply by road caused severe crisis in the state. Railways stepped in to run the first ever such train left from Bhanga (Assam) to Churaibari in Tripura. The road connecting Tripura with Assam has been in a very bad shape, disrupting the flow of commodities to Tripura and leading to a severe crisis.This helped Tripura to overcome the problem of fuel shortage.

The New Railway line project (15 km) cost of Rs.968 crore between Agartala in Tripura and Akhaura in Bangladesh will be completed very soon. Surveys are going o­n for new BG lines of 2.9 km Belonia – Chittagong to connect with Bangladesh, 45 km Pencharthal to Dharmanagar via Kailashahar and 170 km Dharmanagar to Pencharthal, Belonia via Kamalpur - Khowai to Agartala. o­nce all these projects will be finished, the economy of the state will benefit immensely. The tourism sector will also get a big boost.

During the period 2014-22, NFR has provided several new amenities in stations and trains from Tripura. 05 Foot Over Bridges, 128 Bio -Toilets, 20 free Wi-Fi were provided at different stations over Tripura during 2014-22. Lifts and escalators are also being constructed to provide better amenities to passengers.High speed LHB coaches with modern amenities were introduced in 02 trains and 120 CCTV monitoring systems were provided at 12 stations during 2014-22 for enhanced security of Railway property and passengers. Mechanized coach cleaning, heavy duty scrubber machines, train cleaning by o­n Board House Keeping Staff (OBHS) are also part of the Swachhta initiative. As a part of NFR’s Go-Green mission all stations in Tripura have been provided with 100% LED lights during 2014-22. Different important infrastructural & long pending works were completed during lockdown and 35 Shramik Specials trains ran over Agartala which carried about 17 thousands of migrant workers to their native state, Tripura.