Manipur Enters India’s Railway Map As First Passenger Train Reaches the State

A passenger train – Rajdhani Express from Assam’s Silchar railway station – reached the Vaingaichunpao railway station in Manipur for a trial run on Friday, putting the state on the Indian Railways map.

According to reports, the train covered the distance of 11 km between the two northeastern stations, with railway officials onboard. The train halted briefly at Manipur’s Jiribam railway staition, where railway officials were greeted by local citizens before the national flag was hoisted accompanied by the national anthem, East Mojo reported.

Among the Indian Railways officials that reached Jiribham station from Silchar were North East Frontier (NF) Railway senior PRO Nripen Bhattacharya, and CDO Silchar, Abdul Hakim, among others.

Addressing the media, Bhattacharya said that the broad-gauge train service was extended up to Vaingaichunpao railway station from Silchar, and that the passenger train service from Vaingaichunpao to Silchar will start soon, East Mojo reported.

Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh on Saturday took to Twitter to hail the moment as “historic”. “The first trial run of a passenger train from Silchar to Vaingaichunpao in Tamenglong was successfully conducted on Friday,” he wrote in the post, adding that the “people of Manipur are immensely grateful” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Echoing him, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union minister of state (MoS) for Development of North Eastern Region Dr Jitendra Singh also wrote in his post on Twitter that the moment was “historic”.

Notably, the Vaingaichunpao-Imphal (capital of Manipur) railway line is also under construction, East Mojo reported. Once completed, it will be the longest railway tunnel near Imphal, the report added.

Source: HT