GUWAHATI:
The Centre has allocated Rs 11,428.86 crore to Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) in the Union Budget 2022-23, informed NFR general manager Anshul Gupta, on February 3.
“The railway budget allotment for 2022-23 fiscal for the north-eastern states is 44 per cent more than previous year’s allotment (Rs 6,913 crore) and 370 per cent more than the average of 2009-14 allotment,” Gupta told the press in Guwahati.
Gupta said the adequate fund has been allotted for capital connectivity to the Northeast that will also enable doubling of High-Density Network (HDN) sections along with electrification of the entire network for seamless connectivity.
As per the budget, Kavach, the indigenously developed system to prevent Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) and train collisions, will be provided on 2,000 km (approximate) route. It has been sanctioned on NFR for HDN and Highly used Networks (HUN) route, he said.
He said that besides the Vistadome train services, electrification is also going on full swing and once done, it will bring NFR at par with other electrified frontiers.
He informed that work for electrification in 766 RKM of NFR is already completed, whereas 210 RKM is likely to be completed by March 2022.
He informed that 55 terminals have been opened for goods handling during fiscal 2021-22 up to January, 2022, and 27 existing terminals upgraded for the handling of both outward and inward goods traffic. Presently 125 terminals are functional for handling goods traffic and 29 goods sheds terminals are being operated round the clock for the benefit of loaders and transporters, he said.
The introduction of Kisan Rail has also helped farmers from the region to send their produce to far flung markets. Gupta also revealed that NFR has carried a total of 11,197 rakes of freight trains from April 2021 to January 2022.