Foundation stone laid for Tupul railway station
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 12 2016: Governor Dr Najma A Heptulla today laid the foundation stones of Tupul Railway Station and Portal No 2's safety tunnel of Tunnel No 12 at a formal function held at 1st MR ground.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Chief Minister O Ibobi, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of State (Railways) Rajen Gohain, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam, Transport Minister Dr Kh Ratankumar, Law and Legislative Affairs Minister I Hemochandra, MP Thangso Baite and MP Dr Th Meinya were also present at the function.

Speaking at the gathering, Prakash Javadekar remarked that majority of the past Manipuri generations expired without seeing railways.

Nonetheless, Manipur will soon find itself in the railway map of India.

After a couple of years, Manipur would see great changes on account of the new revolution in the field of connectivity.

When Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India, 10 per cent of the Union budget was set aside for the North East region in addition to setting up the DoNER Ministry, Javadekar stated.

Foundation stone laid for Tupul railway station

Chief Minister Okram Ibobi stated that the foundation stone for Jiribam-Tupul railway project was laid by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh of the previous UPA Government.

Even though the project was targeted for completion by 2012, the target could not be achieved on account of insurgency problems and sub-standard transport network.

The railway line would have a number of tunnels but it would be a wastage of time for a Union Minister to come all the way to Imphal to lay foundation stones of these tunnels, he said.

Stating that he had repeatedly approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi to upgrade RIMS to the status of AIIMS, Ibobi asserted that there would no shortage of manpower for upgrading RIMS to the status of AIIMS but what was lacking was infrastructure.

Talking about National Sports University (NSU), Ibobi recalled that a team of the Ministry of Sports came to the State soon after the Central Government announced its decision to set up NSU in Manipur.

The team inspected three probable sites and sent a report to the State Government.

Later, in 2015, the State Government handed over 336 acres to the Sports Ministry for setting up NSU.

It was rather disheartening that after all these years Union YAS Minister Vijay Goel was stating that the site selected for NSU was a low-lying area and it was not suitable for NSU, Ibobi remarked.

Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's primary goal was to bring uniform and rapid development across the country.

Railways have immense roles to play in bringing speedy development in any part of the country.

Even though the North East region was neglected for decades, the Central Government had initiated several measures to develop the region.

Till 2014, the railway budget varied between Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 32,000 crore.

On other hand, some countries like China earmarked around Rs 10,0000 crore for railway budget.

China's high speed railway network has connected over 20,000 Kms of the country.

Informing that high speed railways would be introduced in India shortly, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu stated that electrification of railways progressed by only 3 Kms in a day.

Nonetheless, since NDA came to power, Rs 850,000 crore has been earmarked for railway budget.

A contract for Rs 40,000 crore has been drafted for manufacturing diesel-electric locomotives in eastern India.

The contract, once implemented, can bring rapid development in eastern India apart from generating employment.

No concrete development could be achieved without commensurate investment, stated the Union Railway Minister.

He then underscored the importance of electrification of the railway network in order to avoid environmental pollution.

He further announced that new measures would be taken up to beautify all railway stations.

Earlier Rs 2000 crore to Rs 2500 crore was sanctioned for railways in the North East.

Now the amount has been raised to Rs 6100 crore since 2015-16 and it would be raised further in the next financial year.

In addition to enhancing railway connectivity, a comprehensive tourism plan would be implemented for boosting tourism sector in the North East region, said Suresh Prabhakhar Prabhu.

Tupul Railway Station for which the foundation stone was laid today would be constructed at the cost of Rs 70 crore.

The estimated cost for Tunnel No 12 of Portal No 2 is Rs 930 crore.

Tunnel No 12, once completed would be longest railway tunnel in India covering a total distance of 11.55 Kms.