February 26, 2012(ToI/TNN) - The Union ministry of environment and forests
gave its nod to continue the construction of the 214-km Lumding-Silchar broad gauge
Barail Sanctuary in
Dima Hasao district recently. The Dima Hasao DFO had stopped the construction
of the project in 2008 as the railway department did not have the permission of
the ministry for construction through the sanctuary. The ministry of
environment and forest gave its nod last week and conveyed its decision to its
Assam counterpart and the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) authorities.
According
to the order signed by the conservator of forests (C) of the Shillong-based
northeast regional office of the concerned Union ministry, the Railways can now
go ahead with the construction work across an area of 3.6 hectares through the
sanctuary. The state government also sent a copy of the order to the chief
conservator of forests, Dima Hasao, in Haflong.
According
to the clauses of the permission, NFR has to pay a sum of Rs 3,048,136 to the
Assam forest department before going on with the project so that the Assam
environment and forest department can carry out afforestation in 7.2 hectares
of land of the Barail reserve forests, in line with the guidelines of the
Supreme Court.
Sources
say that the nod for construction will go a long way in ensuring that the work
for the broad gauge project, the foundation for which was laid in 1996, is
completed by December, 2013 and commissioned by January, 2014 in accordance
with the NFR plan. NFR had earlier announced that the project will be completed
by 2006 and then 2009 and again by 2012. The project has been a victim of
‘logistical problems’ in the past years, sources said.
The
authorities said the construction of the longest tunnel in the section, tunnel
10, with a length of 3,235 metres, has started from both sides and is expected
to be completed by October, 2013.
The
Lumding-Silchar-Jiribam-Badarpur-Kumarghat gauge conversion project, which is
368.46 km long, was sanctioned in 1996-97. The project, costing Rs 4,073.50
crore, was declared a national project in 2004.
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