Indian Railways is significantly contributing towards transformation of the North-eastern states by executing several new railway line projects. Constructing new railway lines to connect all the state capitals of north-eastern region is going on under capital connectivity projects.
The Jiribam – Imphal new line railway project is one of the crucial connectivity projects for the North-eastern region that is at an advance stage of completion. The works for this new line railway project, among other connectivity projects, is also going on in full swing to connect Imphal, the capital city of Manipur to the rest of the country. The Jiribam – Imphal project has already achieved physical progress of 93.30%.
Construction of the Jiribam – Imphal railway project involves multiple tunnels and bridges in tough terrains and which is stretched at more than 111 km length. The total length of tunnels in this project is 61.32 km out of which 59.11 km tunneling works has already been completed.
The project will have total 11 major bridges and 137 minor bridges, out of which work for 05 major bridges and 101 minor bridges have been completed so far. The tallest pier railway bridge of the world with a height of 141 meters is also being constructed in this project and nearing completion.
The section from Jiribam to Khongsang has already been commissioned for train service. After completion of the entire project, the present road journey time of about 10 hours to reach Imphal from Jiribam will get reduced to 2.5 hours by railways.
N. F. Railway is putting their full effort by working 24X7 for the completion of this project with all the challenges like heavy rainfall and other logistic hindrances.
The new rail project will provide enhanced connectivity to the people of the Manipur, help grow small scale industries in the area and boost tourism of the state. It will also help in receiving of essential commodities faster by the state and help the state local producers to export their produces outside the state faster. Economy of the state will receive a boost.