Mizoram to get first railway link after nearly 8 decades

NEARLY eight decades after Independence, Mizoram is set to be linked to the nation's railway grid with the completion of the 51.38 km Bairabi-Sairang new line.

- HEMANT KUMAR ROUT @ Aizawl

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had laid the foundation stone for the project in 2014, is likely to inaugurate the newly built line on September 13.

Notably, the state had just 5 km of metre-gauge line from the Assam border to Bairabi in Kolasib district until the Bairabi-Sairang project was sanctioned in 2008-09. Built at a cost of around ₹8,000 crore, the railway line is not just historic, but an engineering marvel. The line snakes through 45 tunnels covering a distance of nearly 12.85 km, besides 55 major bridges, 87 minor bridges, five road overbridges and six road underbridges, a feat achieved in one of the most challenging terrains in the northeast region.