AGARTALA, August 8 (TIWN): Good news for daily train commuters to and from Agartala. So far the decision of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) train service in Agartala-Dharmanagar route is not going to be closed from 1st October, as had announced. Earlier, NFR authority had decided to bring Lumding-Agartala gauge conversion in a single project block and suspend train service at least for six months.After detail exercised, NFR officials indicated that the entire gauge conversion in the Lumding-Agartala mega block will be not be taken together. As a result, at least Agartala-Dharmanagar up to Silchar via Badarpur section is might not be going closed from October 1.

 However, the proposal has not yet been Okayed by Ministry of Railway and Development of Northeast, said a top official of NFR. According to him, Tripura asked to complete broad gauge track laying work in feeder portions like Dharmanagar-Kumarghat, Kumarghat-Agartala and Badarpur-Silchar section before starting Lumding-Badarpur block.

NFR officials argued gauge conversion work will begin in Badarpur-Lumding portion and feeder portion will be taken later. So that; easily after six months bigger coaches from rest of the country could reach up to Badarpur with goods for entire southern part of Northeast. "From Badarpur the goods can be carried to Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and Silchar when in second phase of mega block work will start for converting feeder portion to broad gauge. It is also in thought to continue meter gauge train service in Agartala-Badarpur and Silchar-Badarpur sections till broad gauge trains reach Badarpur but final decision has not yet been taken," NFR officials stated.

They however, pointed out that NFR authority has been proceeding with the earlier plan to suspend goods and passenger train services from Lumding from September 26 next. In next one week from September 26 before the small trains were moving out from the region, they are scheduled to carry all construction materials and goods in different portion of southern portion.

"Even if metre gauge line is converted into broad gauge, evacuation of small trains will not be a problem because now also from Lumding, train coaches are carried on tray to Bongaigoan railway workshop almost every week," they maintained. As per plan, India will sell out the small train coaches to Bangladesh and a few coaches might be shifted to Rajasthan. It is estimated that everyday on an average 12000-14000 people are travelling by trains from Tripura to Assam in different destinations.

"Besides, carrying foodgrains and essential items from Guwahati to Tripura and other southern points of Northeast, facilitating the travel of these 12000 people for two years in northern part of Tripura and up to Guwahati is also emerged as a challenge for us. Since 2008 with the introduction of train service up to Agartala buses and passengers vehicles are not sufficient in our state and now we are coordinating with Assam and Meghalaya to run buses," said a senior Transport official of Tripura.