• NET Web Desk

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday has sanctioned the final location survey of 111 km Imphal-Moreh section for constructing a new broad gauge railway line, with an intent to link India with its neighbouring country, Myanmar.

The Railway Minister accompanied by Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh conducted an aerial inspection of railway projects in Manipur and ordered the location survey for the new BG line up to Moreh – which is referred as an important border trade centre along the India-Myanmar border.

“This new line once constructed will be of strategic importance and will form an important part of the proposed Trans-Asian Railway which will connect India with South East Asia on a rail network,” – asserted a senior Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official.

Its worthy to note that NFR is now implementing the Broad Gauge (BG) railway (Jiribam-Imphal) project worth of Rs 14,320 Crore to interlink the state capital, Imphal by December 2023.

After completion of the concerned project, the Manipur capital would stand-out as the fourth capital city in the northeastern region after Assam’s main city of Guwahati (adjoining capital Dispur), Tripura capital Agartala and Arunachal Pradesh’s Naharlagun (adjacent to capital city Itanagar).

However, the NFR is also laying new railway tracks to connect the capital cities of two more northeastern states – Mizoram and Nagaland.