DIMAPUR — A
coordination meeting chaired by Nagaland's Secretary for Transport, Robert
Longchari, was held on Wednesday to discuss key railway infrastructure projects
in the state.
The meeting was attended by Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR)
Chief Engineer (Construction) for the Nagaland Project, Nilmani Brahma; Deputy
Commissioner (DC) of Dimapur, Dr. Tinojongshi Chang; and representatives from
various civil society organisations.
The agenda focused on upgrading Dimapur railway station to
‘world-class standards’ and the Lumding-Furkating railway doubling project,
which also covers Dimapur.
Following the meeting, Brahma informed the media that the
contract for the upgradation of Dimapur station had been awarded and that
design work had already commenced. “The contract is awarded, and the design
part has started. Hopefully, it will start in this financial year,” he stated.
He emphasised that the upgradation of the station and the
Lumding-Furkating railway doubling project, which spans 140 km and was approved
by the central government in February 2024, would need to proceed
simultaneously.
Brahma also stressed the importance of local community
support in tackling challenges such as encroachment. He said that the railway
plans to hold regular meetings to monitor the progress of the projects once
they are underway.
Transport Secretary Longchari highlighted the importance of
coordinating efforts to ensure work begins not only at Dimapur railway station
but also on other railway projects across Nagaland.
On matters related to encroachment and other land issues,
Longchari said that land-related issues would be managed by the district
administration to facilitate the smooth execution of the projects.
In this connection, the Dimapur DC stated that the district
administration had requested a comprehensive list of encroached areas from the
NFR.
Noting that there are various categories of encroachments
and several cases are under litigation, he said that the administration will
study the encroachment cases once the list is provided and handle them
accordingly.
