Demand to include Lakhimpur, Dhemaji railway stations in Amrit Bharat Station scheme

LAKHIMPUR: Of late, resentment is brewing in the districts of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji of North Assam due to non-inclusion of any of the railway stations under the two districts in Amrit Bharat Station Scheme. It has triggered a wave of discontentment among citizens of the both district during the current days.

The Amrit Bharat Station scheme aims to initiate preparation of master plans and their implementation in phases to improve the amenities at the stations, like improvement of station access, circulating areas, waiting halls, toilets, lift or escalators as necessary, cleanliness, free Wi-Fi, kiosks for local products through schemes like ‘One Station One Product’, better passenger information systems, Executive Lounges, nominated spaces for business meetings, landscaping etc. keeping in view the necessity at each station. The scheme also envisages improvement of building, integrating the station with both sides of the city, multimodal integration, amenities for Divyangjans, sustainable and environment friendly solutions, provision of ballastless tracks, ‘Roof Plazas’ as per necessity, phasing and feasibility and creation of city centres at the station in the long term.

As part of the plan of the aspiring scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually laid the foundation stone for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations across the country on August 6. The chosen 508 stations are spread across 27 States and Union Territories, including 32 railway stations of Assam. As per information received, the 32 stations of Assam set to get the revamp are Dhubri, Fakiragram Junction, Kokrajhar, Gossaigaon Hat, Gauripur, Lumding Junction, New Haflong, Diphu, Chaparmukh Junction, Jagiroad, Sarupather, Narangi, Hojai, Lanka, New Karimganj Junction, Arunachal, Rangapara North Junction, New Bongaigaon Junction, Rangiya Junction, Mariani, Dibrugarh, Jorhat Town, Makum Junction, Margherita, Amguri, Naharkatiya, Tinsukia, Duliajan, Simaluguri, New Tinsukia, Namrup, and Sivasagar Town.

But, significantly, no railway station under Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts under 14 Lakhimpur Parliamentary Constituency, which are covered by Rangia-Murkongselek Railway tracks, has been selected for the revamp under Amrit Bharat Station scheme.

The North Assam districts, specifically Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts (undivided Lakhimpur district, which covered parts of present Vishwanath, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts in the past, spreading up to Sadia, including North Lakhimpur, Dhemaji Jonai etc.) have been miserably neglected regarding developmental issues, including boosting of communication through railway, since colonial period. Present Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts had to wait for a long time to get the taste of development even in post-independent period.

These two districts were connected with other parts of the world with railway line very late. During colonial period, British at first built the railway line up to Tezpur only. Then the Tezpur-Balipara Light Railway was built as a 20 mi 32 km long, 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) narrow gauge railway line between Tezpur and Balipara of present Sonitpur district in 1895 with the primary aim of transporting tea from upcountry estates to the river port of Tezpur for onward shipment down the Brahmaputra to then Calcutta. The portion of the section from Rangiya - Rangapara North–Tezpur was constructed by the British between 1894 to 1933. Beyond this point, no place of North Assam was connected with railway line till 18 years of post-independent period. The meter gauge line beyond Rangapara North upto Murkongselek was constructed after the Chinese invasion in 1962, only because of the security point of view of the nation, not for developmental purpose of the area. The section upto North Lakhimpur from Rangapara North was opened in 1965 and beyond North Lakhimpur in 1996. This 510-km long branch railway line from Rangiya to Murkongselek was the longest meter gauge branch line of the Indian Railways and occupied a very crucial position from the nation’s defence point of view and still so. Despite repeated demands to convert this railway line to broad gauge, the Rangia-Murkongselek railway line had to continue its operation with metre gauge till 2013 due to negligence of the government at the Centre and the Railway Department.

The conversion of this section of the railway line to broad gauge started on 2007–08 only. The Rangiya-Rangapara North-Dekargaon section was converted to broad gauge and opened for traffic in 2013. The Rangapara North-Harmuti and Harmuti-North Lakhimpur sections were converted to broad gauge in 2014 and the North Lakhimpur-Sripani (Dhemaji district) section was converted and opened in 2015. The final stretch between Sripani and Murkongselek was converted and opened to traffic in May 2015 as well. From this, it is clear that the Lakhimpur-Dhemaji section of the railway line had to wait for around 70 years to witness its upgrade to broad gauge from meter gauge in even post-independent period due to negligence of the Centre and the Railway Department.

“The non-inclusion of any of the railway stations under the two districts in the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme, at present, also implies the continuation of the negligence on the part of the Centre and the department concerned towards boosting the development in the most critical north-eastern peripheral area of the State,” a section of aggrieved people of the two districts unanimously asserted in front of this correspondent.

“This railway track plays a pivotal role in fostering socio-economic development in the region and defense point of view of nation, to give befitting reply to an aggressive neighbouring country. So, we have demanded the Centre to revamp the North Lakhimpur and Dhemaji railway stations under the two districts by including them under Amrit Bharat Station schemes to provide the benefits of the modern amenities of the railway services,” they added.

Lakhimpur MP Pradan Baruah, Lakhimpur MLA Manab Deka, Dhemaji MLA-cum-Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu have been criticized for failing to get any of the railway stations under the two districts included in Amrit Bharat Station scheme.

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