Taking a critical look at the Jiri-Tupul-Imphal railway line

Bula Devi *

Construction in progress at the Imphal-Jiri-Tupul rail road worksite in Tamenglong District in the mid of March 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

The Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line, that had almost got derailed owing to lack of funds, is back on track. At a recent meeting with chief ministers of northeastern states, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh allocated an additional Rs 250 crore for this financial year so that the ambitious project chugs back to life. Following the additional fund allocation, work is on the fast track now. "The additional fund was a huge support; the project was at the verge of closure," an official said.

The Central government had earmarked Rs 454 crore for 2013-14 towards the project. But the entire amount got exhausted in December last year itself, almost bringing the project to a grinding halt. This had worried Manipur chief minister O. Ibobi Singh, who is reported to have raised the issue with V.K Duggal soon after the latter assumed office as the Manipur governor.

Incidentally, while the Central government had estimated an expenditure of Rs 454 crore for the current financial year, the railway ministry had revised this estimate to Rs 1,050, an additional Rs 596 crore.

The train to Manipur has been given top priority not only by the Manipur government but also by the Central government, particularly the Planning Commission. "The railway line will not only benefit people's movement but also transportation of goods. It will provide faster and cheaper connectivity.

We may later even introduce Rajdhani on this line; it will all depend how things progress. We have a vision; this will boost people-to-people contact, domestic as well as international but our priority at the moment is domestic. This will bring investment. We would like the line to reach to Moreh and then connect to Myanmar but then it will be up to Myanmar how they respond," a senior official said.

The Planning Commission's focused attention to the railway line will be good news to Manipur, which has often paid a heavy price for economic blockades imposed by agitators carried out at the behest of insurgent outfits. Over the past few years, national highways 39 and 53 have been the target of agitations. By simply blocking these two lifelines of Manipur, agitators have held the State to ransom. The railway line when completed could serve to tackle this problem.

The huge losses the State government runs up because of such blockades have been highlighted in a recent study. In 2004-05, the State suffered a loss of Rs. 139.20 crore. In 2005-06, the annual loss was Rs. 258.99 crore while in 2006-07 it was Rs. 231.77 crore. In 2010, Manipur lost Rs. 276 crore because of the debilitating blockade of national highway 39 for 69 days on the trot.

Besides providing better connectivity all through the year, unlike roads which can get blocked during the monsoon season due to floods and landslides, the railway line will also have other benefits. Already, work on the project has had a positive impact on two fronts: employment and infrastructure.

In Tamenglong district, a large number of jobs has been generated. The railway ministry has estimated that 1,000 locals have been employed by various companies on a daily basis. They have been hired as drivers, operators and mechanics. Indirect employment by way support services has also gone up.

The railway project has also improved the infrastructure in the state. A large number of service roads have been constructed for the project, increasing the mobility of locals. The railway line is seen as the one of the missing links of the Trans-Asian Rail Network.

In terms of faster and cheaper connectivity, the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line when completed will have the same effect that the partially completed train to Kashmir has already had. In Kashmir, the Banihal-Qazigund railway has brought down travel time, if there are no traffic jams, between the two towns from more than an hour to about 12 minutes only. In cost terms, people have to spend below Rs 20 by train, almost one-seventh of the Rs 150 that they pay to move through shared Tata Sumos.

An added benefit of the Banihal-Qazigund rail link is real estate prices. Property and land prices in Banihal have shot up 10-fold in the past six years ever since the railways started working on the project. A similar benefit is bound to happen as the Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal railway line snakes its way through the forested hills and bucolic plains of Manipur.

So what is the status of the much-anticipated project? At a recent review meeting held in Itanagar, where Planning Commission officials were also present, the railway ministry submitted that as of December 2013, 50 per cent of the Jiribam-Tupul line, the first phase of the project, has been completed. About 1,308 hectares of land have to be acquired and of this, 1,263 hectares is now in possession of the government. Of the 112 minor bridges planned, 33 have been constructed.

Thirty four tunnels totaling 39 kms are to be made. Of this, 14 kms of tunneling has been done till December last year. An interesting aspect of the project is that nearly half of the 111 kms long Jiribam-Tupul- Imphal rail line will be tunnels. Six major bridges have to be built but none has started so far. In short, construction work is neither a crawl nor is it a smooth run.

Among the minor constraints, ironically, is the frequent economic blockades and bandhs, the very factors why the Centre and the state government are so keen to complete the project. There are also 30 militant groups operating in the project area, which have often delayed construction work through imposition of bans.