Lumding-Badarpur rail service soon

GUWAHATI, July 28 – The NF Railway is making efforts to start the metre gauge passenger train services very shortly on Lumding-Badarpur-Silchar section which had been cancelled from May 15 due to frequent ‘law-and-order’ incidents resulting in death of Railway staff, including the driver of a train. This was stated in a press release.It is now proposed to run a day service between Lumding and Haflong and back and Silchar and Haflong and back. For the convenience of large numbers of long-distance passengers, the night service of Cachar Express is also planned to be restored. This, however, will be done with some change in timings and the train will leave around 3 pm or so from either side so that short-distance passengers can travel.Since night patrolling of track is not possible for security reasons, the train is planned to be run at restricted speed of about 15 kmph, duly stopping at all stations.Detailed timings and the date of restoration of services are being finalized.In the meantime, all other necessary inputs are being put in place. The night train will be run with a bullet proof engine, the release added.More coaches: The North East Frontier Railway has informed that additional AC 3-tier coach was attached to South-bound 2510/2509 Guwahati-Bangalore Express. The 2508/2507 Guwahati-Ernakulum Express and 2516/2515 Guwahati-Trivandrum Express will be continued up to August 31. source: assam tribune

Suspension of trains hits Lumding-Badarpur route passengers

HAFLONG, July 28 – The people of entire southern Assam, Tripura, Manipur, etc., have been facing untold sufferings due to suspension of passenger trains between Lumding-Badarpur hill section of NF Railway following militants attack on Railwaymen during May last.The running of passengers train in this section was suspended from May 15 last, when the DHD(J) killed few railway men including driver of a train. Employees from most of the stations were also shifted to safer places. Several union bodies of the Railway personnel have opposed to work in hill section without proper security.Following the demands from neighboring states the railway began to run few goods trains to meet the supply of grains and buffer stock for these states. But the railway authority is still not in a mood to run passengers trains through this violence hit district of NC Hills.Talking to this correspondent, Sri Rakhal Dasguta , General Secretary, Mazdur Union, NF Railway, said “We are also concerned for the sufferings of the people but we cannot push our people to the jaws of death. Our people are always ready to work but at the same time we want proper security to our people.”It is learnt that the employees who were shifted from this section have returned to their respective place of posting except Phiding, Kalachand and Wadrengdisa station. source: assam tribune

Assam set for protests over delayed rail projects

July 6th, 2008 - 2:02 pm ICT by IANS
By Sujit Chakraborty Silchar (Assam), July 6 (IANS) Political parties and pressure groups in southern Assam’s Barak Valley have announced a series of agitational programmes demanding expansion of railway lines and protesting delay in ongoing rail projects. “People are getting restive following the prolonged delay and indifference towards implementation of vital projects along with the expansion of railway lines,” said Rupam Nandi Purkayastha, president of the All Cachar-Karimganj-Hailakandi Students’ Association (ACKHSA).

The foundation stone for the 201-km Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was laid in 1996 by former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and work was supposed to be over by 2006.
The gauge conversion project was declared a national project by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and is considered as the lifeline for southern Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and parts of Manipur.

The ACKHSA, along with the All Dimasa Students’ Union (ADSU), has been jointly spearheading a campaign for expediting the railway projects since last month. The leaders of ACKHSA and ADSU last week met Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga to seek their support in launching a mass movement.

As part of their agitational programme, the two organisations supported by Left parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties have called a 12-hour shutdown on Aug 8 in southern Assam comprising Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and North Cachar hills districts.
Purkayastha and ADSU president Prafulla Hafila said they would organise protest demonstrations at the Boat club in New Delhi during the next session of parliament in August.
The two associations will also organise a sit-in demonstration in Guwahati during the monsoon session of the Assam assembly next week.

Early completion of the East-West corridor and restoration of the Karimganj (southern Assam)-Sylhet (Bangladesh) railway line are their other demands.

“The Centre had decided to convert all metre gauge lines to broad gauge lines in India and allocated Rs.45 billion in 1993 for the purpose, but nothing was allocated for the conversion of the Lumding-Silchar metre gauge line to broad gauge line,” said Basudeb Acharya, chairman of the railways parliamentary standing committee.

Lok Sabha MP from Tripura, Khagen Das told IANS: “In the 201-km Lumding-Silchar rail line, there are 130 big bridges, 654 small bridges and 10,480 metres of tunnels and only about 30 percent work on the entire project was completed.

“If work goes on at this pace, the project cannot be completed even by 2011.”
According to the Northeast Frontier Railway, so far 50 people, including construction workers and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel have been killed by militants in southern Assam after the Lumding-Silchar gauge conversion project was undertaken.

“Militancy and acquiring of land besides shortage of funds are the main problems for the gauge conversion project,” a Northeast Frontier railway official said on condition of anonymity.
The Northeast Frontier railway authorities suspended train services in the Lumding-Badarpur Section May 15 and also evacuated about 1,200 railway staff from 13 railway stations of the NC Hills district following the spurt in violence by the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel faction), also known as Black Widow.

The construction companies have estimated a loss of about Rs.500 million during April-May due to the spurt in insurgency.

8 labourers killed in Lumding-Badarpur hill section

Assam: Militants kill 8 labourers
K Anurag in GuwahatiMay 11, 2008 20:17 IST Source: rediff.com

Suspected Black Widow militants gunned down eight construction workers of the Indian Railways at Phaidang under Mahur police station of North Cachar Hill district of Assam at around 2 pm on Sunday as a fresh bout of violence rocked the hill district since Saturday.

The police informed that a group of armed militants suspected to be from Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or Black Widow opened indiscrimate fire at the construction workers killing eight of them on the spot.

The labourers were engaged by a contractor working in the multi-crore gauge conversion project of the Indian Railways in Lumding-Badarpur Hill Section under Northeast Frontier Railway. The railway project is already under severe threat from the marauding Black Widow militants.
The police and army launched a combing operation in the area following the massacre of the labourers.

A source in the Railways said that such killings by militants would not augur well for the gauge conversion project as well as railway services in Lumding-Badarpur hill section.
The Black Widow militants have posed serious threat to the project.

Incensed by fresh killings of its workers, the NFR might resort to cancellation of passenger train services in Lumding-Badarpur hill section in protest against continuing attacks by the militants and the failure of Assam government to provide adequate security to the contractors and workers engaged in the gauge-conversion project that is vital for expansion of the railway in the hill section of the north-east region.

Sunday's killing could be a retaliation by the DHD-J militants to the killing of 12 of its cadres by the army in the hill district on Saturday.
Three other persons were killed when Black Widow militants attacked a remote railway station in the hill district on Saturday night.