Imphal-Jiribam rail line : CM urges for environmental clearance
Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Info Centre

New Delhi, November 10 2014: Chief Minister Okram Ibobi today met Union Minister of Forest and Environment here and urged him to give the clearance for the construction of Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal broad gauge railway project as soon as possible.

Mention may be made that the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Finance and Climate Change (MoEFCC) during its meeting on September 22 and 23, discussed 37 proposals for diversion of forest land for non- forest purpose.

Of these, 9 proposals including 'Northeast Frontier Railways-Jiribam-Imphal-Tupul BG railway project' in the transport services segment were recommended by FAC.

Forest Advisory Committee recommended diversion of 1,005.055 hectares of forest land for construction of 111 km long Jiribam-Tupul-Impal railway line in Manipur.

Completion of the project will lead to Imphal getting connected to India's railway network.

North East Frontier Railway's (NFR) Jiribam-Tupul-Imphal BG railway line project was sanctioned way back in 2003-04.However, the project could not make much progress due to lack of environmental clearance.

Work on the project gained pace only after intervention of the Project Monitoring Group (PMG) under the Cabinet Secretariat.

MoEFCC was asked by the PMG to expedite grant of clearance for the project.

Work on the Rs 60 billion project is being taken up in two phases.

Under Phase -I, 84 km Jiribam-Tupul section will be completed by March 2016.Remaining 27 km stretch between Tupul and Imphal will be taken up under Phase -II and will be commissioned by March 2018 .

The project will also feature the tallest girder rail bridge in the world.

Bridge no 164 will have a pier height of 141 metre.

At present, Mala-Rijeka viaduct on Belgrade-Bar railway line in Europe has the tallest pillar of 139 metre.

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