Hilly terrain biggest challenge to Dhansiri-Zubza rail project

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 4

The deadline to complete the Northeast Frontier Railway’s Dhansiri-Zubza (Kohima) line has been further reset to 2026. This was informed by NFR General Manager Anshul Gupta in Dimapur today. 

Gupta was on a daylong visit to Nagaland on September 4 to take stock of the 90.5km broad-gauge rail project, which was commissioned in 2016. The original completion timeframe was March 2020, which was extended to 2023.  Earlier in June this year, Gupta told a virtual press conference that the deadline was extended to 2024. 

“It would likely be completed by 2026 but we are trying if we can reduce the time period,” he told The Morung Express. 

While he did not go into the details of the causes for the frequent extension of the project, he said, “The main challenge has been (hilly) terrain. There is no other problem as of now. All issues, including land issues, have been sorted out.”  

On the progress of the work, he informed that track has been laid till Shoxuvi and 3 (out of 20 tunnels) have been completed. 

The estimated cost at the time of commissioning was Rs 2,500 crore, including the cost of acquiring over 900 hectares of land for the project. Around 2.5 km of the line falls in Assam— Dhansiri station (Assam) to Dhansiripar, Nagaland. 

As originally announced by the NFR, the work was planned to be executed in three phases— Dhansiri-Shoxuvi section (16km) as the first phase, Shoxuvi-Khaibong (30km) as the second and Khaibong-Zubza (45km) as the third. The first targeted completion date of the first phase was December 2018, the second was December 2019 and the third, March 2020. The line will culminate 16 km short of Kohima.

The GM added that he also met the Nagaland Chief Secretary and other state government officials in Kohima. Besides the rail project, he said that the prospect of using the railways to transport farm produce from Nagaland was also discussed.

“We will be introducing more trains at this station. Hopefully COVID situation will improve and more trains will move,” he added. 

On the amenities available at the Dimapur Railway Station, he commented, “Improvement is always welcome. We will try to further improve the facilities here, including the circulating area, parking system and catering arrangement. We have already discussed. You will see lot of improvements here.”