“No plan to introduce Silchar division” GM NFR, “feasibility study report awaited” clarifies CPRO

Anshul Gupta, General Manager, N.F. Railway on Saturday held a press conference at his Maligaon office to inform the new budget provisions and future projects that are lined up this financial year of 2021-22.

General Manager took to inform that Indian Railways has got the highest ever total Plan Capex of Rs. 2,15,058 Crores, which is much higher than the last year’s figure of Rs. 1, 61,042 crores. The Gross budget allocation for NFR for 2021-22 is Rs. 8,060 crs which is much higher than last year’s figure of Rs. 6,549 crs.

During the interaction, GM informed that adequate fund has been allotted for capital connectivity to North Eastern states by March 2023, faster connectivity on NE Region by doubling of High-Density Network (HDN) sections along with Electrification of the entire network for seamless connectivity.

He also informed about the introduction of the aesthetically designed Vista Dome LHB coach on tourist routes to give a better travel experience to tourists willing to travel in the NE region in consultation with the respective State Govt.

Though very few projects from Barak Valley were seen in his deliberation, GM mentioned, as per the policy of Indian Railways, 100% electrification of rail routes have been proposed which will boost the economy of North Eastern states along with bringing the N.F. Railway at par with other Electrified Railway.

He informed that work for Electrification is already complete in 451 RKM in NFR and work for electrification is going on in the 770 RKM section in NFR which is likely to be completed by August 2021. Work in the remaining 2962 RKM is planned to be completed by March 2024. He announced the Electrification of the track is likely to be completed up to Guwahati by March this year.

In the end, when the GM was opened for questions from the media, the Barak Bulletin correspondent asked the senior official on budgetary provisions for setting up the announced Silchar railway division. But to everyone’s surprise, the general manager replied there is “no plan to introduce a new division”.

The reply was contradictory to earlier developments where the Railway ministry itself informed in the parliament that three new divisions have been announced at Gulbarga, Jammu, and Silchar. Apart from this, railways has also formed a committee, in 2019, to study the feasibility of creating the divisions.

Necessitating a clarification, our correspondent called the Chief Public Relations Officer of NF Railway, Subhanan Chanda. The CPRO informed that it’s true that a committee has been formed for feasibility study and GM’s denial was of the meaning that no further communication has been received by the NFR for creating the said division as of now.

“A committee has been constituted to study the feasibility of the proposal but as of date, we do possess no information on whether the report has been submitted or not and that is what GM sir said at the conference,” CPRO Subhanan Chanda said.