One of the 45 tunnels on the new railway line.
The newly built Sairang station near Aizawl in Mizoram.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi The Crore of £ 8,071, 51.38 kilometers of railway line that connects Bairabi Station with the newly built Sairang-Station-Op about 20 km from Mizoram’s capital Aizawl-inaugural it will mark an important milestone for the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR). It also indicates the broader plan of the Indian government to extend railroad connectivity to the border of Myanmar.
The ultimate goal is to connect the northeastern states with Kolkata port via the bay of Bengal, using the Sittwe -port in Myanmar, built by India, for both strategic and economic reasons. This would also help to reduce the transport burden on the Siliguri gang. While the new railway line to Aizawl is part of the Capital Connectivity Project of the Center, a final investigation is underway for a proposed 223 kilometers of expansion of Sairang currently the last stop on the Indian Railways Network-to Hbichhuah, near the border of Myanmar.
Railway officials said that the survey is a complex Lidar mapping exercise, carried out via helicopters over dense forests and mountainous terrain. Once completed, the proposal for approval is submitted to the railroad. The Zeroute from Kolkata to Sittwe comprises approximately 540 kilometers, compared to almost 2,000 kilometers per road. The plan is to move goods by sea to Sittwe, and then by the road and river through the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project – funded by India – to reach Mizoram and other northeastern states faster and sustainably.
Currently road transport from Kolkata to the northeast can extend to 1500 kilometers, with Silchar alone in Assam at 200 kilometers away. The newly opened railway line significantly reduces travel time and offers an alternative to all weather conditions for the highway with two lanes, which is susceptible to landslides and heavy rainfall.
The Mizoram Capital Link Project, which includes four new stations – Hortoki, Kawnpui, Mualkhang and Sairang – was presented in the late 1990s, received approvals a decade later, and started in 2014. “There were several challenges in October” Nilanjan Deb during a site visit.
“We had to build 200 kilometers of roads to reach the construction sites through Rots and Slush. Work had to be carried out around the four-month window. All-month of stones, sand, machines and building work from Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, etc.—-had to be transported from Kolkata and other places,” he added.
Tragic
There were tragic incidents, including the death of 26 employees when a bridge segment collapsed during construction two years ago. “Initially, the local population was scared, but later they expanded the full cooperation. The only problem we were confronted was that workers did not want to stay because of a bad mobile connectivity. Those who went home for a break never returned. So we came up with the idea to rotate every few months,” said Mr De Deb.
Deep cutting in the hills – up to 65 meters – together with measures to protect the high coordination against landslides and the use of ballastless traces in tunnels, pushed the construction costs to £ 157 crore per kilometer compared to the usual £ 10-12 crore for laying new railway lines. All structures had to be earthquake resistant because of the fragile geography of the region.
The new line was built by tunnelen by 12.85 kilometers of mountainous terrain, resulting in 45 tunnels – the longest is approximately 1.87 kilometers. A total of 153 bridges were built, including 55 large bridges, with the longest measurements of approximately 1.3 kilometers and the highest rising rising about 114 meters from the base. The Krung bridge in Sairang, especially larger than the Qutub Minar, is a highlight. In addition, 88 small bridges, five road crosses and six road bridges were built.
The railway connection is invaluable for local residents, so that the travel time is shortened by half. What ever removed from Silchar or a few hours from Kolkata to 10 hours can now be completed much faster. The railway offers a reliable alternative to the winding two -lane highway and is expected to increase the economic opportunities, SCR Chief Public Relations Officer A. Sridhar.
Three trains announced
After the prime minister’s inauguration, the railways announced three trains along the route: a daily train to Guwahati (12 hours), a train three times a week to Kolkata (31 hours) and a weekly Rajdhani Express to New Delhi (42 hours), starting later this month. Electrification work on the route is expected to be completed by December. Until then, trains work with a combination of electric and diesel locomotives.
To promote tourism, the Mizoram government and the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC) A two -year memorandum of agreement signed to run special tourist trains under the ‘Discover Ne Beyond Guwahati’ initiative.
In the meantime, NFR is also working on new railway lines in the region, tunneling through lush green mountains, bridging deep gorges and crossing countless water bodies. Projects include the 111 kilometer line to Imphal in Manipur, the 88 kilometer line to Kohima in Nagaland and the 45-kilometer line in Meghalaya-all, it is expected to be completed in the coming years.
Published – September 12, 2025 10:53 pm is
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