Troubled Assam, Manipur out of Euro-Asia rail route
Saturday, 7 February 2015
Indian policy makers want to bypass the areas in Assam and Manipur intentionally as they are often hit by ethnic riots or disturbed by insurgent activities, reports bdnews24.com.
According to the new proposal, Dhaka should be connected to Jawahar Nagar in north Tripura, which is south of Mahisasan from where new lines will be laid to proceed towards Sairang in Mizoram. From there it would be connected to an existing line at Ka Lay in Myanmar.
Though the UNESCAP plan is not final but Assam and Manipur has not been kept in the network in order to provide hassle-free travel without 'bandhs' and violence that may hamper traffic on the main TAR network.
The TAR is a 17,500-km long railway line passing through 28 member countries and has been described by UNESCAP as "Yesterday's Silk Road".
The idea was conceived in 1992 following political and economic changes in the region. The network will be fully ready after construction of the missing links between countries and connecting the existing tracks within the member countries.
The east-west corridor that traverses through India originates at the easternmost part in Istanbul in Turkey and will pass through Iran right till the Afghanistan border from where the missing link will be constructed to connect Islamabad. The existing tracks from Islamabad to New Delhi will be a part of the network, which travels eastwards to Kolkata and Dhaka.
The network will be fully ready after construction of the missing links between countries and connecting the existing tracks within the member countries.
According to source in the Northeast Frontier Railways the construction work is not going according to the Trans
Asian Railway plan and is avoiding Imphal as Manipur is frequently hit by trouble.
An alternative route of 257 km from north Tripura's Jawahar Nagar railway station to Kolashib in northern Mizoram and from there to Myanmar's Darlon via Sairang has been proposed to connect with this mega network.
On the Myanmar side, there is already an operational railway line from Ka Lay to Yangoon and further down to Dawei, which is being connected to Bangkok.