Good News for Barak Valley: Silchar-Trivandrum Express going to get a new look under Project Utkrisht

Train journeys have never been that comfortable, well, atleast for Barak Valley passengers. About to get dismantled rakes, stinking corridors, filthy toilets, obstructions caused by vegetable and other sellers, keeping their pile in mid-way, pulling of emergency chain for unloading the stocks by vendors are some common observations, which nearly every Barakian witnessed during the erstwhile Metre Gauge era.

People had high hopes that their rail journey would ease drastically after gauge conversion. But things hardly changed with the advent of Broadgauge, only the destination being extended to Guwahati, Sealdah, Trivandam, New Delhi or some other big city instead of Lumding (since it was the juncture where metre gauge & broad gauge lines used to intersect each other, a kind of affection that every passenger would have historically felt when he touched the junction).

But maybe, the fate of Barakians is going to change as NF Railway has some special plans to solace the hassles faced by the commuters. They have selected 32 trains under project ‘Utkrisht’ for upgradation which includes Silchar- Guwahati Express & Silchar-Trivandum Express as they plan to develop 640 ‘utkrisht’ rakes in the next two years at a cost of 4 billion.

The rakes will be fitted with energy efficient LED lights, odourless bio toilets, braille signage and night glow stickers, vinyl rapping provided at the doorway of couches, provisions of dustbins in the toilets, big size mirrors, toilets with exhaust fans etc. Swacch Rail Toilet (SRT), a hybrid design of bio toilet system is a unique feature of this ‘Utkrisht’ rake.

Some of the NF Railway trains which will be upgraded under this project are Silchar-Guwahati Express, Silchar-Trivandum Express, Dibrugarh-Kanyakumari Express, Dibrugarh-Kolkata Express, Dibrugarh-Howrah Kamrup Express, Siliguri-Alipurduar Express, Guwahati-Bangalore Express.