The engineering-cum-traffic survey was already completed. Quite surprisingly, the project was shelved. After that came the most ridiculous proposal from the Railway Board to connect Silchar with Jogighopa by laying the BG track, most of which would go through Meghalaya, the memorandum added.
Ghosh mentioned that the people of Meghalaya had objected to the extension of rail head from Guwahati to Byrnihat, a distance of 25 km only. How could they, agree, to the laying of more than 200 km of the track? This project was mooted during the time of CK Jaffer Sharif.
Ghosh alleged that it was clear that the Railway Board was acting at the behest of some vested interests. Even before the people of Barak Valley could understand the implication of such an utopian project, the NF Railway came forward with its own proposition to convert the existing MG track into BG without detailing the technicalities involved in this project.
It was more than clear that behind all these experiments was the influence of the transport lobby. Realising the communication difficulties in Barak Valley, Tripura and Mizoram as well as Manipur, the then Railway Minister Ramvilas Paswan laid the foundation stone of Silchar-Lumding BG in 1998. Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav declared it as a national project and said that it would be completed by 2009. But the construction work has now been suspended due to extremists attack in NC Hills.
This railway line is regarded as the life line of supply for not only Barak Valley but also Tripura and Mizoram, the Shuruwat said.
Ghosh further said that there is enough reason to believe that various forces, the upper most being the transport lobby, have come together to sabotage the project.
The militancy-related problem has no doubt created a serious threat perception, which has already taken several lives of engineers and workers at different locations. This position can be tackled by providing security cover as is being done for Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir where there is significant progress of work on railway tracks.
The same is the fate of the Silchar Saurashtra east-west corridoor. Even after five years of gazette notification by the Union government for acquisition of land for the highways, land for 103 km, highway out of a total length of 753 km highway in Assam has been taken over. This clearly speaks of the sorry state of affairs of the construction of the east-west corridor. In south Assam, of the 54 km of highway portion, land for only 13 km has been handed over to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The contracting agency involved in the construction of highway, however, alleges that not even a single kilometre of land is free from encumbrance. This calls for through probe into the entire messy affair. There is enough cause to believe that an unholy nexus exists between a section of officials and revenue circles in the acquisition of land, Shuruwat alleged.
The killing of several engineers of Gammon India Co entrusted with the construction of highway in NC Hills has also raised similar questions regarding security.
This aspect of security has to be given a serious thought it the highway is to be completed on schedule. Apart from various factors delaying the highway project, the indifferent attitude of the State Govt and lacking of seriousness on the ground level are telling on the construction of the highway connectivity, which is seen as an important link for the socio-economic development of the region.