Agartala: Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar sought Prime Minister Narendra Modis intervention in resource mobilization for gauge conversion work along the Lumding-Silchar and Badarpur-Agartala sectors. The state government is worried about transportation of essential commodities when railway services will be suspended. NH-44, which connects Assam and Agartala, is not in good shape, said transport minister Manik Dey. He added the state government has asked the Railway Board to create a buffer stock of food material, construction material and essential commodities before conversion work begins. He said India has asked Bangladesh to allow monthly shipment of 35,000 MT of PDS grains via its sea port, keeping in mind the difficulty which Tripura will face from October. A team of North East Frontier Railway (NFR) officials, led by general manager R S Virdi, informed the CM on Tuesday that work along the two sectors cannot begin from October 1. As per the plan, the Lumding-Silchar sector will become broad gauge between October 2014 and March 2015, while the Badarpur-Agartala railway track will be converted between October 2015 and March 2016. Hence, from October 2014 to March 2016, railway services will be suspended completely in Tripura, Virdi told Sarkar. Due to shortage of labour, machines, monitoring mechanism and money, NFR cannot undertake conversion work simultaneously across both sectors, he said. However, the CM expressed his displeasure with the Railway Boards decision. He said the Centre can complete gauge conversion work in both sectors within six months if it wants. If railway services are suspended completely, then the southern part of the region will be disconnected from rest of the country, Sarkar said.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 20:05:40 +0000
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