The railways’ gauge conversion work of 200-km-long Lumding-Badarpur (Silchar), Assam line, which would help faster and economical transportation of foodgrains to north-eastern states — Tripura, Manipur and Mizoram — is likely to be delayed for a few months.
Food ministry sources told FE that railways, which had earlier aimed at completing the much-delayed project by March 31, 2015, is yet to construct adequate rail-heads, approach road and platforms for smooth handling of foodgrains rakes at various places.
Prior to the commencement of the conversion work, around 60,000 tonne of foodgrains — mainly rice and wheat — used to be transported by Food Corporation of India (FCI) from Punjab, Haryana or Andhra Pradesh to Lumding, Assam every month and then the grains used to be loaded into metre gauge trains for further transportation to Silchar, Agartala and Aizawl.
Sources said that if the gauge conversion work is not completed in next few weeks, it would be more difficult to complete the work after the arrival of monsoon.
Because of closure of Lumding-Agartala metre gauge section, known as ‘mega block’, since October last year, the transportation of foodgrains, to be distributed through PDS, is being done through National Highway 40 and 44 to parts of Assam (Silchar), Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura.