Guwahati, June 4 (PTI): The Northeast Frontier Railway has taken up a daunting task of electrifying more than 50 per cent of the total 6,242 km of railway lines by March 2020, officials said on Tuesday.
A total of 534 km of railway lines has already been electrified and an additional 2,631 km of railway lines will be electrified by March 2020, the spokesperson of NF Railway, P J Sharma, said.
A total of 219 kmof railway tracks under the jurisdiction of Katihar Division of NF Railway was electrified in 2017-18, including Katihar Yard (37.51 km) and Katihar- Kumedpur-Malda Court (181.84 km) sections, and since then a total of 315 km of railway lines were electrified during 2018 -19.
Electrification of 1,085 km of railway tracks, including the Raninagar-Jalpaiguri-New Bongaigaon-Rangiya- Guwahati section, is supposed to be completed by December 2019, the spokesperson said.
Currently, 21 pairs of passenger trains and 14 goods train running on electric traction originate from NFR and travel towards other zones and this figure was expected to increase as more and more sections gets electrified, he said.
Once the entire section from Katihar to New Jalpaiguri is electrified which is expected to be completed by July 2019, the change of engines from electric to diesel will take place at New Jalpaiguri, he added.
The work on preparation of a detailed project report (DPR) is also in progress for sections where electrification has been sanctioned during 2018-19 and these include Rangiya- Rangapara-Harmuti-Naharlagun (339 km), Harmuti-Murkongselek (230 km), Badarpur-Silchar section along with Arunachal- Jiribam and Katakhal-Bhairabi sections, Sharma said.
The other sections are Badarpur- Karimganj-Agartala- Sabroom section along with Agartala-Akhaura and Karimganj- Mahishashan sections (590km) and Mariani-Jorhat Town-Furkating and Tinsukia Jn-Makum Jn-Tirap along with Makum-Dangri section (174 km), Sharma added.
