First rail link to Aizawl likely to open in September

Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to inaugurate on Sepember 13 the Bairabi-Sairang railway project that would link Mizoram's capital Aizawl to the railway grid, marking the latest milestone in sustained, decade-long efforts to expand the railroad infrastructure in India's mountainous northeast.

Aizawl will be the fourth capital city in the erstwhile remote region to be connected by the 51.38-km railroad, boosting surface transport in a part of the country where heavy road-freighting costs through landslide-prone motorways have often been cited as one of the major deterrents to industrialization.

PM Modi will visit Assam on September 8 and take part in several development programmes in and around Guwahati, the biggest city in the Northeast.

A senior government official in Mizoram said that though the final confirmation of the Prime Minister's schedule is yet to come from the PMO, it is most likely that he would inaugurate the railway project on September 13.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma, while addressing the 15th Conference of the Mizoram Police Service Association (MPSA), indicated that the Prime Minister is likely to flag off the Bairabi-Sairang railway project on September 13.

On July 14, Chief Minister Lalduhoma met Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi and also invited him to formally inaugurate the newly completed Bairabi-Sairang railway line and the new Sairang Railway Station.