[Assam] Inter-city rly service between N Lakhimpur & Guwahati needed (The Assam Tribune, 09.11.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

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 snail’s 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 Railway’s 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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