‘Northeast Railway did outstanding work in laying tracks’

Agartala, March 31 (IANS) Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has done outstanding work in laying new railway tracks in the mountainous northeastern region despite various odds, an official said here on Friday.

"Despite various topographical and many other odds, the NFR has done outstanding works in laying new railway tracks in the hilly northeastern region," Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) Shailesh Kumar Pathak told reporters.

"The NFR laid the new railway tracks and did gauge conversion from metre gauge to broad gauge giving top priority in safety and standard," Pathak said.

Earlier on Friday, the CRS, accompanied by NFR officials and engineers, conducted an inspection of the newly laid 9.26 km Udaipur-Garjee section, which is part of the Agartala-Sabroom 114-km-long railway project.

Indian railways have been executing the Rs 1,150-crore Agartala-Sabroom railway project and it will be completed by March 2019 to access the Chittagong international sea port to ferry men and material for the landlocked northeastern states.

Tripura's border town Sabroom is only 75 km away from the Chittagong international sea port in southeast Bangladesh.

Pathak said the speciality of the 9.26-km Udaipur-Garjee section is that there is no level crossing in this section, as six road-over-bridge and six road-under-bridge were constructed to facilitate the people cross the railway tracks and stations.

"Over 40 per cent accidents on Indian railways occur in the vicinity of level crossings. That's why this Udaipur-Garjee section is very unique," the official said expressing deep satisfaction at the construction and quality of the newly laid segment.

In October 2008, with the extension of the erstwhile metre gauge track upto Agartala, the capital city was put on India's rail map through southern Assam. Subsequently, the metre gauge was converted into a broad gauge.

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