Inter-city rly service between N Lakhimpur & Guwahati needed
>From Our Correspondent
NORTH LAKHIMPUR, Nov 8 The town of North Lakhimpur, district headquarters of
Lakhimpur district is in dire need of direct railway link to Guwahati for a
quicker, safer and cheaper journey for thousands of its local people who
commute daily to the state capital city for various purposes. However, North
Lakhimpur has not been directly linked to Guwahati by the railways since a long
period of time.
Earlier, North Lakhimpur was well connected by the railways from Guwahati over
metre-gauge tracks in the city from Narengi to Pandu or Kamakhya. At that time,
a direct train named the Arunachal Express was running on this route from
Guwahati to Murkongchelek in Dhemaji district. The train used to leave Guwahati
at 7 pm from only metre-gauge platform of the station and reached North
Lakhimpur next morning. Similarly the same train used to reach North Lakhimpur
from Murkongchelek in the early evening and used to deport for Guwahati. That
service was running smoothly with a few exceptions during the onslaught by
floods in the summer, providing cheaper and comfortable journey to public
belonging to the all sections of society including students.
The train service was badly hit from 1987 when the Bodoland agitation created a
volatile situation in areas through which the Arunachal Pradesh runs in Darrang
district, such as Tangla, Udalguri and other places. Services were, however,
reopened since 1993 onwards and ever since Arunachal Express started its
journey from the Kamakhya station of Guwahati for its upward journey following
the complete conversion of meter gauge tracks from the Guwahati railway station
to broad gauge tracks.
Total conversions of the remaining meter gauge tracks upto Rangiya rendered the
Arunachal Express out of the ambit of greater Guwahati it started to operate
services on Murkongchelek route from Rangiya. This transformation of the
passenger railway service to the north-eastern part of the state has enabled
people of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts to avail easy and cheaper mode of
journey to the state capital.
Now people of Lakhimpur districts are forced to go by bus to Guwahati which
costs from Rs 280 minimum to Rs 325 by Volvo service. Moreover, the 400-km-long
road journey to Guwahati from North Lakhimpur or vice versa is so tedious and
painstaking that most of the passengers do not enjoy the trip.
Buses that run between Guwahati-North Lakhimpur route in the day service are
often seen to be recklessly driven endangering the safety of passengers or
rather move at a snails pace like city buses picking up more passengers
resulting in the direct inordinate delays for long distances buses on this
route, both belonging to the state-owned ASTC and private operators are
old-model and ill-maintained vehicles where long-distance travelers do not get
the necessary comfort.
Even the Volvo bus that runs daily night services on this route belongs to the
year 2004-05 with many inconveniences for which the passengers have to pay
maximum fare. The near-worsening condition of National Highway-52 near Gohpur
in Sonitpur district and National Highway-37 at Nagaon district in recent times
have made the bus journey very uncomfortable for the passengers. From this
point of view, a daily day time passenger rail service between Guwahati and
North Lakhimpur is necessary for a large number of people of this entire north
bank area spread across four districts.
Railway service between Guwahati-Nagaon, Guwahati-Jorhat and
Guwahati-Bongaigaon route have been making a vital contribution towards a
better and cheaper public transportation in the State and similar services can
be introduced to North Lakhimpur also.
However, ahead of implementing such a service, gauge conversion of railway
tracks of the NF Railways Rangiya-Murkongchelek route is important.
Though the Railway ministry has approved the gauge transformation of this route
for the Bogeebeel Bridge over the Brahmaputra, the slow pace of work on the
bridge has been affecting conversion works of the railway tracks.
Public here has demanded that as the construction of the Bogeebeel bridge will
take time, it would be better, if NF Railway completes the conversion of the
Rangiya-Murkong-chelek route from meter gauge-to-broad gauge at the earliest
for the introduction of a direct daily train service between Guwahati and North
Lakhimpur.
(The Assam Tribune,09.11.2007)
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