Guwahati: A total of Rs. 10,440 crores has been allocated for the Northeastern region for railway infrastructure development in the budget of 2025-26. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Railways, Information & Broadcasting and Electronics & Information Technology on February 3, 2025 held an interaction with media persons of Northeast in connection with the fund allotted in the Budget 2025-26 for Railways. Chetan Kumar Shrivastava, General Manager of N. F. Railway, Arun Kumar Choudhary, General Manager of N. F. Railway (Construction) and senior railway officials of Headquarters were also present. While addressing the media persons, the Minister of Railways informed that for a second time in row, total outlay of more than Rs. 2.65 lakh crores have been allocated in the budget for the Indian Railways. The Railway Minister mentioned that Indian Railways is all set to expand faster, safer & comfortable rail travel all across the country. 200 new Vande Bharat trains, 100 Amrit Bharat trains and 50 Namo Bharat rapid rails will be rolled out in the coming years. The new trains & modern coaches will go a long way in serving the lower & middle class people. To enhance safety 1000 new flyovers and underpasses will also be constructed, he added.
During the interaction, the Minister said that physical progress of all the ongoing projects in the Northeastern region are advancing at a good pace. Despite being located in geographically difficult terrain, project works are being carried out on a 24×7 basis for early completion. In Assam & NE region, 1824 kms of new tracks were constructed since 2014, which is more than the entire rail network of Sri Lanka. 478 new flyovers and underpasses were constructed in the northeastern states since 2014. A total of 1189 Route Kilometres have been identified for implementation of Kavach across N. F. Railway, the Minister added.
Both the General Managers while addressing the media informed that 92 stations across N. F. Railway will be transformed under the Amrit Bharat Stations Scheme. Electrifications of all the tracks under the jurisdiction of N. F. Railway will be accomplished by December 2025. The Bhairabi – Sairang project in Mizoram is also likely to be completed by the month of July this year, the General Managers added.
Moreover, the Gross Budget Allocation for Railway infrastructure projects in Northeast for the FY 2025-26 is Rs. 10,440 crores. It is more than 5 times as compared to average budget allocation of Rs. 2,122 crores during 2009-14. This year budget allocation shows unprecedented growth in several segments like new line and doubling projects, track renewal works, traffic facilities, road safety works, bridge works, signalling, workshop modernisation and customer amenities etc.
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