Manipur: Khongsang railway station receives first goods train

Imphal: In a major boost to the Indian railway connectivity, the first goods train arrived at Khongsang railway station from Rani Gaidinliu station in Tamenglong district of Manipur on Sunday.

Khongsang villagers welcomed the goods train by wearing colourful traditional attires.

The 56-km railway line between Khongsang and Rani Gaidinliu stations is part of the ambitious Jiribam-Imphal new broad gauge railway line project. 

Another 111 km is being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 14,000 crore by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR).

Taking to his Twitter handle, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said, “As promised in our election campaign, I’m pleased to share that the first goods train has successfully arrived at Khongsang Station from Rani Gaidinliu Station (56 km).”

“Immensely thankful to Hon’ble PM Shri@narendramodi ji for his unwavering support for development of Manipur,” he added.

“First loaded goods train with 52 BOBYNL wagons successfully rolled in at Khongsang station at 15-25 hrs yesterday from Rani Gaidinliu Station (56km). Indian Railway is committed to provide faster & reliable transportation for economic development of Manipur,” writes NFR on its Facebook page.

On January 27, 2022, Rani Gaidinliu station at Oinamlong village received its first goods train, marking the first-ever freight train reaching in Manipur.  

The new railway line will have 46 tunnels, including the second largest 12 km single tube tunnel in the Indian railways network and 153 bridges. One of the bridges which is being constructing is Noney bridge across the valley of River Ijai, will be the world’s tallest girder railway bridge with a height of 141 meters when completed.

According to the Ministry of Railways, the Jiribam-Imphal railway line, once completion, will reduced the travel time of 10-12 hours to a mere 2.5 hours.

6 years on, Assam’s Cachar Paper Mill workers broken despite BJP’s word