AGARTALA, July 28 (TIWN): In a bid to break the deadlock on the proposed Broad Gauge (BG) conversion work under the Mega Block a delegation team of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) on Monday met state Transport Minister Manik Dey at the secretariat demanding for a security measures if required, health hazards, FCI and IOC sites and others prior to kick off the full fledged work, said official source of secretariat on Monday.The train services from Agartala would remain suspended from October 1 following the mega block conversion work which is scheduled to end by March 2016. Presently one pair passenger train is running between Karimganj and Agartala.The official said that the delegation team meeting with Minister Manik Dey had demanded for certain assistance by the state government comprising of security measures in the sections from Agartala to Badarpur section if required.The NFR has also demanded for health hazards in view of the areas which is prone to malaria. According to them there is a need of taking precautionary measures to eradicate the health problem on account of mosquito bites. The state government was requested to keep ready the nearest hospitals or the health centres, the official said.

The mega block work will be done day and night in the section and hence there will be requirement of night running of the vehicles in the section, demanded the NFR.

The delegation meeting with minister also mentioned that the fund required for the acquisition of land at Jirania site would be placed to state government by August 5 this year. Besides they claimed that due to non availability of land for FCI and IOC siding railway is not able to progress with regard to crossing station at Bhirgudaspatra.

The issue of road over bridge and road under bridge in Kumarghat- Agartala section was also taken up in the meeting where the NFR delegation said that the joint team formed has done the survey work and identified 30 locations.

Out of the 30 locations being identified road over bridge would be constructed at 24 locations, road under bridge at 2 locations, subway at 1 locations, 1 location is having no traffic and 2 other locations can be merged by diverting traffic to a third location where ROB has been proposed.

However, the BG conversion work from Badarpur to Agartala would be taken up in two phases.

During the first phase the BG conversion work would start from Badarpur to Kumarghat stretching about 118 km whereas during the second phase work would start from Kumarghat to Agartala stretching about 109 km, official said. 

A total of 227 km of meter gauge would be converted into broad gauge from Badarour to Agartala.

Adding he said the train service would remain suspended from October 1 until the conversion is ended. The service will remain suspended during the construction work and laying BG tracks replacing the meter gauge.

However, once the BG conversion work is ended successfully people can travel to any other parts of the country from Agartala. Besides, the Agartala station is all set to receive a bee storming gathering of passengers following which another entry point would be constructed here in Agartala.

The second entry point would also have same facilities of ticket counter, sanitation, rest house and others which the existing rail station has.