Indian Railways upgrades railway stations in North-East! Recently, many Indian Railways stations across the North-East part of India have been upgraded and renovated. Under the Adarsh station scheme, a total of 30 stations have been upgraded in the North-East states. In a recent written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal stated that the works for the improvement of passenger facilities and amenities are undertaken by the national transporter depending upon need, passenger traffic volume as well as inter-se priority, subject to availability of funds. Take a look at the stations below, which have been upgraded under the Adarsh station scheme:
In Assam, a total of 28 stations have been upgraded namely, Rangapara North, Srirampur Assam, Gosaigaon Hat, Silchar, Badarpur Junction, Fakiragram, Salakati, Basugaon, Goreswar, Udalguri, Tangla, Rowta Bagan, Tipkai, Bijni, Tihu, Barpeta Road, Hojai, Rangiya Junction, Jakhalabandha, Jorhat Town, New Bongaigaon, Jagiroad, Tatibahar, Bongaigaon, Karimganj Junction, Kokrajhar, Furkating and Narengi. In Nagaland, Dimapur and in Tripura, Pencharthak stations have been upgraded as well.
In 2018-19 three Northeastern stations namely Guwahati, Rangiya and New Tinsukia have been taken up for upgradation under “soft upgrades improvements at railway stations”. These stations have been provided with various facilities such as improved waiting halls, parking area, WiFi lounge, toilets, refreshment room, cloak room, lifts, escalators, paid executive lounge, first-class waiting hall for ladies, commercial outlets, RO water booths, etc. Moreover, construction of Foot Over Bridges (FOBs) has been completed at eight railway stations namely Mandardisha, Lamsakhang, Dhalpukhuri, Lanka, Pencharthal, Haitikhali, Habaipur, and Patharkhola.
Goyal also said that 13 new railway line projects have been taken up in North-East India which are currently at different stages of planning/execution/approval. These projects include a new line between Moynaguri and Jogighopa with gauge conversion of new Mal-Moynaguri Road and New Changrabanda-Changrabanda section, Jiribam-Imphal, Dimapur (Dhansiri)-Zubza (Kohima), Sivok-Rangpo, Murkongselek-Pasighat, Teteliya-Byrnihat, Bhairabi-Sairang, Byrnihat-Shillong and Agartala (India)-Akhaura (Bangladesh). Also, four new lines are likely to be sanctioned soon namely, Salona-Khumtai, Sibsagar-Jorhat, Dimapur-Tizit, and Tezpur-Silghat.
