The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has said that better connectivity to the North Eastern States is of utmost priority for the Indian Railways. Presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament today he said, Indian Railways have opened the long-awaited Broad Gauge Lumding-Silchar section in Assam, thus connecting Barak Valley with rest of the country. It also brought Agartala, the capital of Tripura on to the Broad Gauge network. He said, the States of Mizoram and Manipur are also set to come on the Broad Gauge map of the country soon with commissioning of the Kathakal-Bhairabi and Arunachal-Jiribam Gauge Conversion projects.

The Minister said, in J&K, despite difficult terrain and uncertain geology, work on Katra-Banihal section of Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link Project is progressing satisfactorily and 35 Kilometers of tunneling, out of total of 95 Kilometers has been completed successfully. He said, the decongestion work on the Jalandhar- Jammu line, an important link to the valley, is going on in full swing. Doubling of two bridges will be commissioned by March 2016, while the other two bridges will be completed by 2016-17, Shri Suresh Prabhu added.

Rail connectivity expansion advances with broad gauge conversions and tunnelling progress improving access to remote regions. Better rail connectivity to the North Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir is a priority, with broad gauge expansion and gauge-conversion projects integrating remote regions. The Lumding-Silchar broad gauge section is operational, Agartala is connected by broad gauge, and gauge-conversion works for Mizoram and Manipur are nearing commissioning. In Jammu & Kashmir the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla link shows substantive tunnelling on the Katra-Banihal section and decongestion and bridge-doubling works are progressing on the Jalandhar-Jammu line to improve capacity and access.