DIMAPUR — Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) along with its construction organisation celebrated the 77th Independence Day on August 15 in a befitting manner.
The central programme was held at the NFRSA complex in Maligaon, where Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, general manager of NF Railway, unfurled the national flag in presence of a large gathering of railway men and their family members. He also inspected an impressive guard of honour given by the RPF contingents, Territorial Army, Civil Defence, Bharat Scouts and Guides and school children.
A NFR press release issued by its chief PRO, Sabyasachi De, stated that the Independence Day was also celebrated in all the five divisions namely at Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar, where the divisional railway managers unfurled the national flag in presence of divisional railway officials.
In his speech, Shrivastava especially mentioned about the recently launched Amrit Bharat Station Scheme where 91 stations under NFR have been identified for redevelopment. The general manager also mentioned about introduction of several Mail/ Express and passenger trains including the first Vande Bharat Express of Assam connecting Guwahati to New Jalpaiguri. Besides, he also mentioned about the international connectivity of cargo train from Bathnaha (India) to Nepal customs yard (Nepal).
For improvement of safety, he stated that 15 level crossing gates were eliminated and 33 road-under-bridge and eight road-over-bridge constructed in last seven months. He added that rail renewal of 207 km and sleeper renewal of 86 km were also completed during the period.
To prevent train elephant collision, he stated that 114 km of elephant corridor in NFR had already been covered under intrusion detection system. He further mentioned that NFR achieved zero signal passed at danger (SPAD) incidents during this year.
Meanwhile, Sunil Kumar Jha, general manager of NF Railway (construction), unfurled the tri-colour at the construction headquarters at Maligaon and addressed the officials.
In his speech, Jha appreciated the progress of the ongoing projects which included 19 new lines, 6 doubling and 3 railway electrification projects. He informed that 1309.38 km of new railway lines and 781.77 km of double lines, 913 km of electrified route would be added in the Indian railway’s map once those projects are completed.
He further stated that international connectivity projects with Bangladesh and Nepal are currently on.He added that two PET surveys have been completed for Kokrajhar-Gelephu and Mujnai-Neopulling routes for connectivity with Bhutan.
Later, fruits and various other essential items were distributed among the patients admitted in the NF Railway Central Hospital, Maligaon.
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